Platinum
by Lawra
Summary: Genma Saotome is a greedy, selfish, individual who's married to a woman with far more wealth than he can fathom. To bad for him, she's a dragon, and if he touched any of it, she would kill him. At least he gets a son out of the deal.
1. The Usual Introductions

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

_Spell_

(Low Speak – Draconic way of communicating that is spoken at levels too low for most creatures to hear)

Timeline information

Ranma is obviously at the beginning of the manga.

Gold Digger is after issue 100, but I haven't decided how close to the beginning or end of the three year time skip before 101.

X x x x x x

**Twelve years ago, Jade Realm, Undisclosed Location**

"Nothing like wabbit stew." Arkis sat on a large rock, stirring a pot slowly simmering over a fire. "Too bad I'll be stuck in the Earth realm for a while. Damn lizards." (1)

Standing up, he went to his tent, and started to dig through his supplies. He would have to head into town one last time before switching realms. This was the second time he had to run from the authorities, so he at least knew what it would take to survive in a world run by technology. Pausing, he heard a strange slurping noise. Slowly he reached into his weapons harness, and drew out a long dwarven steel broadsword.

Spinning, he brought the sword up in front of his body, creating a guard for attacks, and immediately let his arm drop. "What are you doing?" He demanded angrily at the young dragon that was currently lapping up his stew.

"Oh, was this yours?" The dragon picked his head up and looked at him quizzically.

"Of course it's mine!" He snapped, noticing several things at once. For one it wasn't just a young dragon, it was positively a hatchling, barely five summers old. A dragon that young wouldn't be left alone, so why was it here? 'A platinum dragon's hide would get me a nice amount of cash, I bet he was abandoned for being a runt or something.'

"Come here." Arkis used his free hand to beckon the dragon towards him. Setting down his blade, within reaching distance, he got down to one knee. 'Lucky me, this young and they can't use magic that well.'

"Why?" The dragon asked, slowly walking around the fire on all fours.

"Just come here." Looking down at the beasts front legs, he waited till he was within three paces, and struck. Grabbing his sword, he was up to his feet, and thrust forward at the joint where the neck met the shoulder. Slashing would only damage the hide, he needed a single quick stab to minimize the loss.

His attack missed, the tiny dragon sidestepping the thrust, before jumping forward, and kicking him in the chest with it's hind legs. Falling backwards into his tent, he was briefly tangled in the ropes tying it to the ground. Regaining his feet, he looked around wildly for the dragon.

"Damn it." He slammed his sword down to the ground, noticing that the animal had gotten away.

X x x x x x

Saotome Genma sat alone at his campsite, waiting for his son to return. He was always worried when Ranma decided to run off on his own. It wasn't that he thought the boy couldn't take care of himself, no he could do that far better than Genma could at that age. Nodoka had warned him that there would be times where Ranma would feel the need to get away from him, that he should just keep an eye on him, and soon enough Ranma would return.

'Like I can keep an eye on him, stupid boy can fly.' He grumbled mentally.

When he had been training with his friend Tendo Soun, and thinking of married life, being married to a dragon was not what he had been thinking of. Currently being on another world was also something of a shock. Jade was a warriors paradise, there were untold numbers of strong creatures that dwelt in the forests, and even the citizens of the planet itself were often stronger and faster than any normal human could ever be.

Hearing a rustling in the bushes, he turned his head to watch his son trot through the bushes in his dragon form. Genma had gotten used to his only child's looks, he had little choice in the matter, since up until very recently, Ranma couldn't assume a human form.

Ranma as a dragon, a platinum dragon, he corrected himself, since there was apparently reason for distinction, stood on four legs or two, with a tail the length of his body. Pale blue almost white scales covered the majority of his body, save for a dark blue triangular crest covering the top of his head, wings, and a short horizontal line near the base of his tail.

"You missed dinner boy." He said gruffly, knowing that Ranma hated to miss meals, his small form, barely a meter and a half long, seeming to vacuum up food.

"Nuh uh." Ranma shook his head side to side. "I got food while I was out." The boy smiled and came to sit next to him. "Where we go next Poppa?"

"Where?" He asked rhetorically. "We're going to go to Earth."

"Earth?" Ranma asked, turning to stare into the fire. "That's where you're from isn't it." He exclaimed excitedly.

"That's right." He nodded.

"Are there dragons there too?"

"No."

"Oh." Ranma bowed his head, before laying down on his stomach.

Genma frowned, as literally magical as the dragon world was, there was one thing that reminded him of home, they didn't like differences. A half breed like Ranma, once word got out over who his father was, quickly was excluded by all those in his age group. Firming his jaw, even if it would build character, he still didn't like to see his only child depressed. "Don't worry boy, you'll like Japan."

X x x x x x

**Twelve years later, Nerima Ward, Tokyo Japan**

"You know old man, you've been really quiet about why we're going to this old friend of yours." Ranma asked, brushing an errant strand of dark blue hair from her eyes.

#Panda's can't talk# Her father, who was currently in the form of a giant panda, informed her with a sign.

"Usually I like it." She joked, pausing midstep seeing that Genma had stopped outside of a large gate, a tall wooden sign next to it reading 'Tendo Martial Arts School of Indiscriminate Grappling'. "This the place?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

#Let me do the talking# Genma signed to her.

"How exactly are you going to do the talking?" She crossed her arms, glaring at the panda.

#I'll get hot water, then talk#

"Sometimes I really wonder what Mom ever saw in you."

#What?#

"You don't think that humans are going to be just a little freaked out when a two and a half meter tall panda shows up at their door?"

#That's why I'll ask for hot water#

"You're an idiot old man." Shaking her head, Ranma went through the open gate.

Crossing a short path to another door, Ranma knocked on it heavily enough for the sound to echo through the house. Two sets of footsteps rapidly approached the door from inside, and it slid open to reveal a girl slightly taller than herself with a bobbed haircut. She had a nice figure, made obvious by a tight black tank top, and very short red cut off shorts. Standing behind the girl was a tall man with a mustache, he was wearing a black gi, and long slicked back hair.

"This sounds stupid, but I can get a couple glasses of hot water?" Ranma asked.

"Is－ is that a panda?" The girl asked, pointing with a finger.

"You－ wouldn't be." The man started, staring intently at her.

"Saotome Ranma." Ranma didn't have time to react before she was pulled inside the home.

"Come in, come in, you must be tired from your trip." The man said happily, gripping her by her shoulders.

"Daddy that's a panda." The girl insisted.

"Yes, yes, they're very rare Nabiki." The man waved the girl off.

"I can walk just fine." Ranma knocked the man away from her, and straightened out her green Chinese shirt. "Can we get some hot water?"

"Why do you have a panda?" The girl turned to ask Ranma.

"Give me hot water and I'll tell you why." She answered, rolling her blue eyes, she just wanted some hot water, was that so hard?

"I can get you some hot water." A girl slightly older than the one that had opened the door said helpfully. She was wearing a demure blue dress, with her brown hair tied with a bow over her right shoulder. Standing behind this girl was another who was Ranma's height in a white gi, her long hair tied back at her neck with a large red bow.

"Dad." The girl in the gi frowned. "Is that supposed to be a boy?"

"That's silly Akane, this is Ranma, of course he's a boy." The tall man answered happily, grinning like an idiot.

"That doesn't look like a boy." Akane looked Ranma up and down.

"Nonsense." Soun turned to look at her, his eyes suddenly widening. Sighing, Ranma really wished that girl would get that hot water faster.

"I have the hot water." The helpful girl returned with a kettle. "But, if you would like some tea, maybe the living room would be better?"

"Nah, don't need it for tea." Walking past the still stunned old man, Ranma grabbed the kettle by putting her hand directly under the bottom.

"Oh my, isn't that hot?" The tall girl asked, holding a hand nervously over her mouth.

"Just right." She answered, dumping it over her head, and returning to her true form. Taking a moment to blink his eyes, and get used to the extra sensory information, he finally dumped the rest over Genma's head, causing the panda to shrink down into human form.

"Too hot boy!" Genma attempted to wipe the scalding liquid from his bald head.

"Feels fine to me." Ranma smiled slightly sadistically.

"Gurk." The mustache man suddenly gurgled and fell backwards in a dead feint.

"What's up with him?" Ranma asked the three sisters. 'That looked kind of painful.' He thought, thinking of how the man's head had bounced off the floor. Of course he had made no attempt to stop the man's painful fall.

X x x x x x

"Alright old man panda, what are we doing here?" Ranma glared at Genma, the man having helped drag the mustached man into the living room, and on to a futon.

"Why don't you tell us what's going on." The bowl haircut girl demanded, kneeling across from him and Genma with her younger sister. The third sister was kneeling at the mustached man's head, gently patting at his forehead with a damp towel.

Ranma's stare seemed to be making Genma nervous, his father fidgeting, and looking in any direction but towards him. This evasive act usually meant that Genma had done something that Ranma was not going to like. The youngest sister was glaring at him for some reason, the middle one looked disappointed, and the eldest looked rather neutral.

"Saotome, you were a panda, and Ranma was a girl." The formerly comatose man said while staring straight up at the ceiling.

"Oh Tendo! It's so horrible to be cursed so!" Genma cried dramatically, tears running down his cheeks. "It all started two weeks ago, at the legendary training grounds of Jusenkyo."

"_Silence Sphere._" Ranma commanded, forming an invisible bubble around Genma's mouth. It took Genma several seconds to realize that no sound was coming out when he was speaking. "This will be easier. _Replay Mirror_." Drawing a circle in the air with his hand, a flat bubble of ether appeared at the foot of the mustache man.

"What? How are you doing that?" The middle sister demanded.

"Magic." He answered with a shrug. "Anyways, this is how it happened." Focusing on the events of Jusenkyo, he started when they had first jumped up on to the bamboo poles.

"Forgetting that I'm looking at a magic ball. What's up with the light show?" The middle asked.

"Oops." Ranma looked sheepish for a moment. 'Damn, how did I forget that humans can't see magical and ethereal energies?' Scrunching up his face in concentration, the image on the screen slowly faded into a normal human range of visual perception.

**Two weeks prior...**

"No magic boy, we're here for martial arts." Genma called over to him.

"Like I need magic to beat you." He taunted back, the bamboo pole under his feet swaying side to side.

Taking a moment to look away from Genma down to the pools, he could see the intricate network of magic spells surrounded the area. He couldn't tell what their purpose was, but if it was anything worth noting, then the Guide would have told them. 'When I send the old man for a swim I'll have to look at this more closely.' There was a large spell that covered the entire area in the form of a ring, with two smaller rings representing each pool.

"You're distracted boy!" Genma interrupted his musings, and Ranma jumped straight up to avoid his father, who landed on the pole.

"Crap!" He hung in mid air longer than should be possible, trying to find a way out of this without using magic. Seeing Genma's smug face, Ranma changed tactics, instead of going on the defensive, he went on the attack. Coming within range of Genma's hands, the man attempting to grab his legs. Evading the hands, he got a kick through to the man's chest, and used him as a push off point to backflip to another pole.

"That it?" He laughed.

"It's time someone put you in your place." Genma leapt in a high arc towards him, an invitation for some mid air combat. Joining his father, they exchanged blows, and disengaged to land on another set of poles.

"Not by a human." Ranma stuck out his tongue at Genma.

"Ungrateful boy! After everything I've done for you." Genma was the aggressor again, and Ranma made him pay for it by knocking him down into a big spring. Returning to his own pole, he crossed his arms triumphantly.

"What the?" Rubbing at his eyes, he watched something attach itself to Genma's aura. "Hey!" He called to the Guide. "What do these springs do?"

"Oh young sir, please come down." The portly Guide was interrupted by having to dodge a wave of water as Genma exited the pool.

"Oh crap, shape change magic." Ranma waved his hands in warding, the panda not spending a second on a pole, before leaping towards him. "Pop don't!"

**End flashback**

"Very tragic story, fall in spring, take the form of whatever drowned there." Ranma was preparing to dispel the mirror when Genma smacked him over the head with a sign. "What was that for?" He demanded.

#Show the rest!#

"No way!" He canceled the _replay mirror_ spell, as well as the _sphere of silence_ he had placed on Genma's mouth. There was no way he was going to tell them about how he had ran around like a chicken with its head cut off thinking that he had been blinded. How was he supposed to know humans had such limited vision? (2)

"The legendary training ground, its true horror has been shrouded in mystery until now." The mustached man said solemnly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma asked angrily, feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer. "You've heard of it before?"

"Er, it's just a legendary training ground." The man said nervously.

"Boy." Genma got up and pushed his round glasses up on his nose.

"What?" Ranma asked, and had the front of his shirt grabbed, before he was thrown over Genma's shoulder and out a large door. Windmilling his arms, he found himself heading directly for a moderately sized koi pond.

Having no desire to get wet again so soon after the rain that had changed him earlier, he shifted into his real form, and with his juvenile wings, he glided gently to the other side of the pool. Turning back to the house, he stood up on his hind legs and stuck his pointed tongue out at a fuming Genma. "Nice try." He sneered.

"What is that thing?" Akane asked.

"Looks like some kind of silver iguana thing." The middle sister added.

"Buh, bwa, what?" Ranma sputtered, shaking his triangular head side to side. "I'm a dragon." Crossing his arms, he hadn't been insulted like that in over a year.

"Uh, uh, ignore the boy, nothing to see here!" Genma suddenly jumped in front of him. "This is just another Jusenkyo curse he picked up yea!"

"How did I ever come from you?" Ranma yelled, jumping upwards and knocking Genma over the back of his head, sending his father into the koi pond.

"These are your friends daddy?" The middle sister asked her father.

Trotting over to the Tendo family, he was about to resume his human form to explain things rationally, when he was suddenly gathered up into someone's arms and hugged tightly. "Ack!" He exclaimed, peddling his feet ineffectually in midair. "Lemme go!"

"You're so cute!" The eldest sister gushed, swinging him side to side.

"I'm not cute! I'm regal! Majestic! Impressive!" He protested. So what if he was only two meters long, his adolescent wings weren't even fully formed, and his body was still slightly pudgy before he developed a sleek streamlined shape. There wasn't anything he could do about it short of starving himself.

"Would the cute little dragon like some food?" The girl asked, her voice turning into sickeningly cute baby talk.

"No, I want you to－ did you say food?" Ranma ceased his struggles. "What kind of food?"

"Kasumi!" Akane looked aghast at the girl holding him. "How can you－ you－ hold that thing?"

"Quiet you." Ranma hissed, the two lines of small ether vents that dotted the sides of his neck flared briefly in emphasis. "Now you were saying something about food?" He shifted his conical head up to look at Kasumi.

X x x x x x

Genma quickly tracked down hot water to return himself to human form. 'Ungrateful boy.' Ever since getting the curse, it had been Ranma's go to attack on him, and since his half dragon son could summon water out of thin air, he had been spending a considerable amount of time as a panda. Letting the eldest daughter Kasumi carry his son off in her arms, with the two other sisters in tow, he got into a kneeling position next to Soun, knowing that there would be questions he would need to answer.

"Saotome, you're son is a." Soun started. "Is he really your son?"

"He is." Genma nodded.

"Another curse?"

"If you want to call his mother a curse, yes." He joked.

Nodoka was, well she wore the pants in the relationship, if you could call what they had a relationship. His wife seemed to treat him more like a pet at times, just some help to keep her son occupied. Though there were times where she had shown a tender side, and even listened to what he had to say.

During his time on Jade, he had gotten some helpful advice from a half dragon who ran a bar. He said that his fiancée, another platinum dragon, while she didn't seem to remember his birthday, or anniversary, or think to help in a crisis. That didn't mean that she didn't care, that was just the way dragons were to non dragons. They had been like that before humans even existed, that Nodoka had even chosen to take him as a husband, was the highest show of respect she could give.

Since Genma was stuck as the father of Nodoka's child, the honorable thing was to take responsibility. While Genma knew he wasn't the most honorable all the time, unless Nodoka was lying to him, Ranma was his son, and that's the kind of duty you don't skip out on. 'It also doesn't hurt that Nodoka is going to stay young and beautiful forever, and wow is she a looker in human form.' He thought, having to drag his mind from images of his wife.

"So he's－ half dragon?" Soun's face lit up. "That's not so bad. That means he's still half human."

"Quite right Tendo." Giving a loud laugh, he hoped that Ranma wouldn't leave without him to watch. 'Nah, the boy loves me, he wouldn't just run off.'

X x x x x x

"A dragon huh?" The middle sister asked, appraising him.

"Platinum dragon." He added, better that he start educating these humans if they were going to be staying for a while.

"Great, now we have a lizard in our house." Akane said rudely.

"No, we're not lizards." He corrected, his eyes never leaving Kasumi, the towering girl hurrying to put finishing touches on dinner. 'I hate being small.' He glowered before rationalizing that playing the cute dragon part would get him food, and food was always an important consideration.

"So a dragon fiance, definitely－ different." Nabiki mused, making him snap his head directly at the girl.

"What do you mean fiance?" He demanded

"You don't know?" Akane asked incredulously.

"Know what?" He asked angrily.

"You're supposed to be engaged to one of us. Fat chance of that, like I'd marry some big iguana." Akane scoffed.

Growling, he shifted to balancing on his back legs, and crossed his arms, cradling his chin in his right hand. While not as dexterous as his human hands, he did have hands while in this form, though they were built to support his weight, and had a wicked set of claws. "That explains why he didn't tell me why we made the trip." Snorting, he headed off through the door. "Well time to kill my old man."

X x x x x x

Nabiki resisted the urge to laugh madly, now was simply not the time. There was a real live dragon in her house! Sure he wasn't very impressive looking in terms of size, but he was a real dragon. The money making potential was endless. He was completely unacceptable as a fiance though, not only did he have that curse that turned him into a girl, but he was a different species. That didn't mean she couldn't foist him off on Akane or Kasumi though, likely Akane.

Following Ranma out into the hallway after Akane, she wondered what else he could do. With the casual way he threw around magic earlier, he could likely do far more. Nabiki could be the woman behind the scenes, managing appearances, public image, maybe even a few off the record deals. Losing sight of Ranma as he rounded the corner into the living room she couldn't see but she heard well enough.

"Ah, Ranma." Genma started happily. "We have to talk."

"We sure do." Ranma replied before there was a heavy bang.

"AIIEE!" Genma's scream followed shortly after.

Grimacing, Nabiki rounded the corner and found their older house guest laid out on the floor, his body covered in black soot, his arms and legs twitching every so often. Laid out next to Genma was her father, though with far less black covering his body.

'Note to self, Ranma can be volatile.'

X x x x x x

Ranma, having returned to human form, allowed Genma to come around and get himself cleaned up without further attacks. That Kasumi girl has served dinner, and he had forgotten how good a home cooked meal could be. While he hadn't made any move to further voice his displeasure at this arrangement, he did have plans.

Instead, he resolved to use his father as a guinea pig to experiment with the curse on. Actually playing around with the complicated spells that made up the curse on himself wasn't something he wanted to do. While he could see the knot of spells forming it, this was his first encounter with a shape changing curse. Of course he would be careful not to cause any permanent damage, but if he did, oh well. The old man had it coming.

"And this is the guest room." Kasumi slid open the door to the room at the top of the steps, and stepped aside for him and Genma to enter.

'Not too bad.' He thought. 'For a human home.' He amended, it was smaller but he wouldn't be cramped. Even after spending most of his life on Earth, he still remembered the vast halls, and opulent luxuries of his mother's lair on Jade.

"Would you like to use the bath? The water should still be hot." Kasumi asked.

"Sure." But he would have to raised the temperature a fair bit in their bath for it to be considered hot. Giving Genma one last dirty look, his father setting up a futon in the center of the room, he followed Kasumi down stairs, and through to the other end of the house.

"Oh dear, you didn't bring any clothes." The eldest Tendo sister noticed his lack of supplies.

"I form the clothes I want." He explained, and the eldest looked confused for a moment.

"You mean－ you're naked right now?" The girl's face turned crimson and she looked away. (3)

"What? No, these are clothes, I just conjure them as I please."

"Oh, that sounds very useful. Well, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Kasumi left him to enter into the changing room.

Sliding the door closed behind him, he dismissed his clothes, and reached for the inner door, realizing in time that there was someone in the bath. Before he could turn around and exit, the door opened, and a naked Akane took a single step forward before noticing him. The youngest Tendo froze up at the sight of him, clutching a towel to her chest with one hand.

"Ah, you're done." Passing by the human girl, he shut the door without sparing her a glance. "Good timing."

Wasting no time, he cast a small spell to increase the temperature of the water, causing the air to become cloudy with the steam, and was just about to sit down and physically wash himself off instead of using magic, when the door burst open. Lazily turning, he saw Akane, now wrapped up in a towel, glaring bloody murder at him. She stomped forward, and proceeded to slip on the wet tile, sending her directly into the bath. Wincing at the girl's cry of pain, he watched her scramble out of the bath, and over to the washing area to start dunking herself with cold water.

"Hey, you're supposed to knock first." He complained.

X x x x x x

"Saotome, what are we going to do about your son?" Soun asked his long time friend, having decided to play a game of shogi. 'Just like old times.' Like before his old friend showed up with a son who was half dragon.

"Don't worry, once Ranma gets settled in, everything should be fine." Genma tried to placate him.

"Who will he be engaged to?"

"Good question." Genma's voice dropped low, and he motioned for him to shh. "The boy has really good hearing. Your youngest, Akane, seems like a good fit."

"Seems like he would like Nabiki more." He mused.

"Well, dragons only really respect strength. Akane's your heir right?"

"Of course, neither Kasumi or Nabiki have ever been interested in the art."

"Then it has to be Akane. Otherwise the boy will just view them as servants."

"It's decided, Akane will marry Ranma." He said with finality.

"I'll let you tell him. He'll like hearing it from his new father in law." Genma made a move, a big smile on his face.

X x x x x x

After a nice relaxing soak, Ranma retired to the living room where Nabiki was watching a small television. Akane was there as well, immediately she started to glare at him, she was still flushed from her dip in the bath.

"Why was that water so hot?" Akane demanded.

"Cause I like hot baths." He answered, frowning at the television. Technology was not a dragons strong point. It was like trying to understand how magic worked, rather than just doing it, and that was just absurd.

"Ranma." Soun made his presence known, smiling at him. "It's been decided, you'll marry Akane."

"What?" He asked, Akane demanding the same thing, only far more loudly. 'I thought they had given up on that?'

"It is a solemn oath that we unite the two schools. Decided before either of you were born." Soun continued, not having caught on to either of their displeasure.

"Me? Marry that lizard?" Akane growled.

"Hey! I'm not a lizard, and I can't get married to anyone, I'm not old enough." He protested.

"Well it doesn't have to be right now. It can wait a couple years until you're both eighteen, and then you can get married." Soun explained happily.

"Eighteen?" Ranma laughed lightly. "I'm not going to be old enough till I'm over a hundred. Pop, what's the deal?" He asked his father, who he could see was hiding behind the wall.

"It's a matter of honor boy." Genma informed him, peeking his head around the wall. "Family honor."

"It's not going to happen." He informed his parent, trying to think up some kind of spell to properly voice his displeasure.

"Yea, I'm not going to marry him." Akane agreed, giving her father a similar look. "I'm not marrying a lizard."

"I told you I'm not a lizard!" Ranma turned to glare at Akane. What was so difficult about remember that he was a dragon?

"If the shoe fits." Akane sneered, getting into his face.

"See! They're already the perfect couple!" Soun voice his opinion.

"I'm not marrying some lowly human just cause you made a promise." Ranma ignored Akane, in favor of grabbing his father by the front of his gi.

"Hey!" Akane yelled in outrage.

"Whining?" Genma asked, suddenly shifting to throw Ranma over his shoulder, so that his back was facing the ground, and heading towards the koi pond. "You sound like a girl!"

"ACK! You jerk!" Ranma wanted to shift forms again to prevent a dip into the water, but being upside down, his wings would be worthless. So he crashed into the water, and instantly felt the disturbing shift into a human female. Sputtering, and feeling a chill from the cool water, Ranma struggled to cast some kind of spell, any spell to turn her old man into a pile of ashes.

"Well Akane, you hate men." Nabiki commented quickly.

"So you're in luck, Ranma's half girl." Kasumi added a moment later.

"I am not half girl." Ranma snarled, storming out of the pool to head for the bath and get some still hot water. 'How dare they treat me like this.' Returning to her true body, he quickly cast a spell to dry himself off, and rushed back towards the living room. Sliding to a stop at the corner before the room, he found his father and Soun laughing to each other. When Genma noticed him standing at the corner, his father immediately positioned himself behind Soun. Snorting, Ranma changed his pace, taking slow, deliberate steps towards the two fathers.

"Now- now- now boy, don't be angry, this is a matter of honor." Genma stuttered, Soun was heedless of the fact that Ranma was going to hurt them both, and remained smiling stupidly.

"Honor? Human honor." Ranma growled, continuing his slow pace.

"It was decided before you were even born." Genma continued.

"So?"

"Your mother knows." Genma said just as he was upon the man, making him stop.

"Mom knows?" He asked, losing a large amount of his anger. "And she hasn't killed you yet?" Genma nodded quickly at his question. "Damn it." He cursed, if she knew about it, and hadn't done anything to stop it, then that was as good as her endorsing it. "I'm still not going through with it!" Simmering, he headed to the guest room upstairs.

"Oh, and you have to go to school tomorrow morning, so don't think about sleeping in." Genma said as an afterthought.

'The old man will pay.' Ranma continued without looking back.

Sliding the door closed behind him, he quickly sat down in the middle of the floor, and dug into his personal rift pocket. Pulling out his palantir, a black sphere the size of his head, he released it from his hand to float in front of him. Directing his instructions for the object into it with a small burst of ether, the palantir quickly turned transparent.

"Ra'ma!" Nodoka's loving voice carried to him, speaking in draconic, and the palantir's view changed to his mother's face. "How's my little boy doing?" She cooed.

"Mom, how could you agree to this?" He asked angrily.

"Agree to what?" She asked, confused over the question.

"Me, marrying some human."

"Well if you want to, who am I to judge? But I don't see how that's a concern right now, you're far too young to be even considering marriage."

"Pop is expecting me to marry some Tendo girl in a couple years."

"He is, is he?" Nodoka's eyes narrowed.

"So you didn't know about this? No deal before I was born about uniting some schools?"

"Nope, now let's forget your father's human foolishness, and let me see my special little boy." Nodoka's voice dissolved into baby talk.

"Aww Mom." He shifted uncomfortably, looking around to be sure no one as watching. 'Why are mothers so embarrassing?'

"Don't 'aww Mom' me, this is the first time I've seen you in a year. And when did you become shy about your true form?" Nodoka leaned in close to her palantir.

"I'm not." He puffed up in indignation before changing shape, even knowing that she would make humiliating comments about him. "Happy?"

"Oh my little boy is growing up so fast." Nodoka wiped at an imaginary tear. "Soon you'll lose your adolescent wings, and all the girls will be after you. No, I bet they'll be after you the first time you come home. I'll have to send out the guardian to shoo them all away!"

The door burst open before Nodoka could say anything more, revealing Genma standing behind it. "Boy! I'll not have you go running to your－ mother." His father paused, seeing the face in the palantir. "Nodoka!" He cried happily, running over and kneeling next to the sphere. "You're looking lovely as ever."

"Of course I am." Nodoka switched to Japanese and took the flattery in stride. "Now what's this about engaging my little boy to some human girl?"

"You heard about that?" Genma asked.

"Should I not have?" She asked suggestively.

"I would have told you, but I know how busy you are." Genma started to sweat.

"Genma dear, I know how impatient humans are, and I forgive you for it. But my son is far too young to get married. Now, I think it would be best if Ra'ma returns to Jade, he needs to spend time with dragons his own age."

"But he's already enrolled in school here." Genma protested. "It cost me a lot of money to do it as well."

"I see." Nodoka looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Yea right, probably some poor place that takes everyone." Ranma sniped, leveling a bored gaze at his father, who was nearly as stingy as a dragon when it came to spending money.

"I suppose he can spend another year on Earth." Nodoka conceded.

"As long as I don't have to marry anyone." Ranma pressed Genma.

"Ra'ma dear, what is that magic clinging to you and your father?" Nodoka changed the subject. "It's hard to make out through the palantir, but they look like curses."

"Uh, uh!" Ranma started to panic. "You're breaking up, skssshhh, uh oh, must be some magical thing." He reached forward and grabbed the palantir with his hands, and started to shake it. "Gotta go, bye!" Cutting off the magic to his communication device, it returned to being a black sphere.

"Good thinking boy!" Genma patted him on the head. "I'm sure Nodoka would have done something horrible to me if she found out you were cursed."

This was true, Nodoka would be less than thrilled to know that Genma had turned him into a full human. The whole female thing didn't even factor into it. That hadn't been the reason he had cut off communication. No that was because he didn't want to admit to being unable to cure himself. He couldn't admit to that, he couldn't say he liked turning into a human, and if any other dragon saw him. Ranma left that thought unfinished.

"I didn't do it for you." Ranma grumbled, putting his palantir back in his rift pocket. "Oh, and _mana spike_." His magical spike of ether knocked Genma back out through the door to slam into the hallway wall. "Lie to me about Mom." He scoffed, closing the door, and using some of his last ether to seal it with a minor spell.

X x x x x x

"Ranma, breakfast." Kasumi's voice roused him from slumber.

"Huh?" Opening up an eye, he raised his head off the plush platinum dragon twice his size that he always slept with. It had been a gift from his mother before leaving with Genma. "You opened the door." He gaped, seeing the eldest Tendo sister standing in the doorway. (4)

"Oh yes, it was sticking for some reason." The girl answered.

'She canceled my spell?' Returning his plush dragon bed to his rift, he followed the girl down the steps. There was nothing he could see that indicated the girl knew aura magic. In fact the only one he had noticed with any kind of magical ability was Nabiki, and that was so unfocused and weak, that she would never be able to cast a spell. So how was it then, that this unassuming servant like girl, could break a dragon's spell?

Instead of heading for the living room, where the food would no doubt be served, Ranma followed Kasumi into the kitchen. He sat down just inside the door and watched the girl's every move, even casting a spell to enhance his sight even further. But there was nothing, nothing at all that indicated this human could cast a spell to cancel his own. Her aura was as bland and uninteresting as any other humans.

Avoiding Kasumi as she started to bring food into the living room, he was no closer to solving the riddle, when Akane hit him on the wings as she passed by. Dressed in a white blouse with a blue jumper style dress down to just below her knees, she took a seat at the table.

"Can't you at least act human?" The youngest quipped. "Following Kasumi around like a pet looking for a treat."

"Act human?" He asked, taking a position across from the girl at the table, which was conveniently dragon height. "Should I sit down and pick bugs from your hair? I saw monkeys do that on tv one day."

"That's not acting human!" Akane's face turned a nice shade of red. "You stupid amphibian."

"Would you keep it down Akane?" Nabiki came in and sat down while wearing the same clothes as Akane. Deciding that Akane must not be smart enough to realize that he was glaring at her, Ranma shifted into a human, and formed red pajamas with yellow fishcakes all over it around him.

"Better dress a little different if you're going to go to school." Nabiki suggested.

Rolling his eyes, he changed his clothes into simple black pants, with a white Chinese shirt like he had been wearing yesterday, and he also changed his hair from a ponytail into an intricately braided pigtail down to mid back. "I don't wear uniforms."

"I hate you." Nabiki poured herself some tea.

"Why?" He asked, the middle sister having seemed the most neutral of the trio.

"Insta-change clothes and hair?" She asked like he was stupid. "There isn't a girl alive who wouldn't want that ability. Well except my tomboy sister." Akane gave off an indignant snort in response.

"Boy." Genma said tentatively, sitting down, and obviously expecting some kind of attack.

"Old man." Ranma smiled pleasantly.

"I take it you're going to school today?" His father asked.

"Who knows? Might be fun." He shrugged.

"Akane, you'll show your fiance to school won't you?" Soun sat down at the next, a folded newspaper dropping on to the table next to his plate.

"Me? Why should I have to do it?" Said girl demanded.

"Well he is your fiance." Soun continued.

"Ah, no no no." Genma interrupted.

"What are you talking about?" Soun asked. "It was decided last night."

"Don't you remember? I told you that Nodoka didn't really like the idea." Genma said nervously.

"But, it's for the honor of the schools, family honor." Soun protested.

"She didn't say she wouldn't allow it, but we can't rush things." Genma tried to placate Soun.

"Oh, why didn't you say so? I'm sure in time love will blossom and soon my little girl will be getting married!" Soun cried happily, starting to literally cry with his pronouncement.

Ranma scooted himself away from the crying man, and around the table so that he was close to Akane. "Tell me again why I would ever want to be part of your family?"

"Tell me again why we would want you." She replied.

"Do you want me to actually tell you, or should I write it down so you won't forget?" He shot back, reaching across the table to grab his plate, and starting to eat. Pausing, he pointed the chopsticks at Akane. "Though it would probably take most of your lifetime to read."

"Well, see you at school." Nabiki suddenly stood up from the table.

"Wait Nabiki, I'll go with you." Akane started to stand up before her sister silenced her.

"Nuh uh, little sister, remember, you have to show our guest the way." Nabiki shook a finger, and grabbed her book bag, before rushing off.

Akane sighed heavily, before turning to address him. "Well come on, we don't want to be late."

X x x x x x

'School, bleh, what do I need school for?' Padding along on top of a metal fence bordering a canal, he allowed Akane to lead him. Of course he was plotting how to pay her back for the lizard comments. She carried herself like a martial artist, not a very graceful or coordinated one, but she was not an average human.

"Hey." He drew her attention. "How good of a fighter are you?"

"Me?" She seemed a bit shocked by the question. "I'm pretty good, why?"

"No reason." He turned his head away, and continued walking casually.

"Listen, don't hang around me at school." Akane told him.

"Don't worry, humans don't really interest me." Truthfully all but a few were boring, and after he found himself cursed to turn into one, they had become even more boring. All the mystery of what it was like to exist as some broken creature, unable to do magic was gone. Losing his sight and magic, he shivered at the thought of entire races who have to live their entire lives like that.

"You're not going to turn into a lizard at school are you?"

"I can't answer that."

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not a lizard." He pointed out.

"Dragon, lizard, what's the difference, just don't do anything weird."

"Ugh, why did Mom think it was a good idea for me to stay here?" He bemoaned his fate, trapped amongst humans, uppity humans who thought they could dictate terms to a dragon. Hopping off the fence when it ended at a crossing, he changed to walking on the concrete, rather than the next fence that came up.

"And we are NOT getting married." Akane snarled.

"Why do you keep bringing that up? It's not going to happen." Ranma paused. "You don't want it to happen do you?"

"No way!" Akane yelled at him.

"Then shut up about it, Grandfather Exthilion you're annoying." Oh what he wouldn't give for the Great Serpent's patience now.

X x x x x x

Nabiki leaned out the second story window of her classroom at Furinkan high school. Her eyes scanned the assembled group of thirty boys who were going to fight her dear little sister for the right to date her. The whole thing was just incredibly pathetic. 'Just a case of them wanting something they can't have.' She snorted, changing her gaze to Akane running up, and engaging the boys in combat.

That wasn't what interested her, no, that was Ranma following the girl calmly, and proceeding to walk around the entire affair like it wasn't happening. As Ranma passed Akane's position in the mob, Nabiki's sister suddenly gave out a shriek, and was tackled to the ground. 'Wait a minute.' Nabiki replayed something in her mind, she had seen Ranma wave his hand just before Akane went down.

'Did he use magic?' She wondered, watching Ranma continue calmly into the building.

"I beat Akane!" One of the boys fighting Akane suddenly yelled, followed by several others who claimed to have done the same thing.

Checking the clock, Nabiki rushed off to meet Ranma before he was able to get to the office. In her rush she missed the original instigator of the morning fights, Kuno Tatewaki, start yelling about how foul trickery had been used to defeat Akane. Skipping down the steps, she navigated her way through students filing into classes, or discussing the sudden defeat of Akane.

She found Ranma, who was busy looking for the office, and slowed her pace. "Hello Ranma." She said, her voice filled with the knowledge that she knew something that she shouldn't.

"Hi." He replied, not giving her much mind, until she pulled him aside.

"Akane would be－ very angry if she knew what you did." She whispered.

"So?"

"So, my little buzz saw of a sister can be very aggressive when she wants to be."

"I think I can handle a human." He replied, taking her warning as an insult. "And I don't think she would know I did anything." Ranma changed his tone, accusing her.

"Maybe someone noticed, someone who might be inclined to tell Akane what happened."

"So you want something from me then?" Ranma asked bluntly.

"Ranma, Ranma, Ranma, I'm an enterprising young woman, and I learned a long time ago that knowledge is power. You, seem to know a great many things that I don't. Perhaps you would share some of that with me?"

Ranma's blue eyes bore into her, a small smile spreading across his face. "Ya know, if I didn't know better I would think you had some dragon in you."

"Is that a yes?"

"No, I don't really care what you tell your sister." Ranma chuckled to himself, before leaving her stewing over his refusal.

X x x x x x

"Class, this is our new student Saotome Ranma." The teacher of his home room announced to the assembled students, Ranma accepted that the man was in a position of human superiority, so the least he could do was humor him until he did something stupid. "Would you mind telling us a little about yourself?"

"Like what?" Ranma asked.

"Where you're from, what you like to do, just something." The teacher answered.

"I'm from Jade, but I've lived on Earth most of my life. Um, I'm a dragon, I like to fly, use my magic."

"Ha ha, very funny Saotome-kun, now please take the empty seat in the middle row." The teacher interrupted him before he could list more things, most of the class erupting into laughter at introduction.

"You asked." He shrugged, and took his seat. It didn't take him long to notice a rather large amount of attention was being directed his way, to which he ignored. 'All these goofy humans thought I was joking.' He grumbled.

A half hour into listening to the man drone on about English, which sounded suspiciously like the Basic used on Jade, Akane burst into the classroom, nearly breaking the door in the process. The teacher ground to a halt, and all eyes turned to the youngest Tendo. Her uniform was ripped and torn in several places, and she was breathing heavily like she had just run a marathon.

"So nice of you to join us, but you're interrupting my class, so stand in the hall until the hour is over." The teacher told Akane, the girl developing a rather violent tick to her right eye. Drooping her shoulders in defeat, Akane closed the door.

X x x x x x

'Just as boring as I remember.' Ranma in dragon form mused, laying on a thick tree branch in the school yard, his legs folded underneath him, with his tail dangling down to one side. View of him was blocked on all sides but below by the leaves, but he could look out through some of the gaps.

During breaks he had ignored the questions sent his way, which unfortunately only increased the amount. But now that it was lunch break, he was relaxing and debating on just leaving. He was bored out of his mind. It was so hard to pay attention and take a human teacher seriously, and he was something close to abysmal at most subjects. Platinum dragons were not known for their technological expertise, which extended to most subjects involving science and math. Ranma didn't even want to think of the humiliation he had when in computer classes.

"I'M NOT GOING OUT WITH YOU!" Akane's voice caught his sensitive ears, and he focused in on a large group of students crowded around Akane and a boy.

"But Akane, I beat you, that means you have to go out with me." The boy, who looked rather unimpressive pleaded.

"I NEVER AGREED TO THAT STUPID THING!" Akane quickly smashed the boy in the face, knocking him out.

"What a strange mating ritual." Ranma noted, laying his head back down on the branch. 'Well I suppose there's only physical education, Japanese, and then some class meeting.'

"I Kuno Tatewaki will not allow this farce to go any further!" Another voice carried to his position, this time a male one. "Akane was unfairly beaten by trickery most foul!" Shaking his head, Ranma tuned out the crowd as more shouting started to come from Akane.

"So what's the new guy like?" A girl asked another, the pair taking a seat near the base of the tree. "I heard he made some joke to introduce himself."

"Yea, he said he was a dragon from some place called Jade. It was hilarious." The second answered, picking at her food with chopsticks. "But then he was all quiet for everything else, it was kind of weird. You would think somebody funny like that would say more."

"Who said it was a joke?" Ranma asked, slipping off the tree branch and landing in front of the two girls gracefully. Immediately they gave off a brief shriek of surprise, recoiling up against the tree. "What? Never seen a dragon before?" He asked, taking a seat.

"A-a-a dragon?" The one on the right asked, and he nodded.

"But you're so little?" The other added.

"I'll have you know I'm big for my age." He scoffed, sitting back on his hind legs, and crossing his arms. 'Humans who have never seen a dragon before seem to know a hell of a lot about us.'

"Aren't dragons supposed to be long and skinny?" The one on the right asked. "Ya know, like in Spirited Away."

"Well I'm not." He informed the girl.

"He's certainly cute though." The other said, shifting her position into a kneeling one, and leaning forward. She had short black hair, and a pair of rectangular glasses. The other was brown haired, with it tied in a long ponytail on the left side of her head.

"I'm not cute!" He barked, dropping his hands back to the ground. "I'm handsome."

"Are you really him? Saotome-san?" The one who must have been in his class asked.

Sighing, he rolled his eyes. "Yes I am Saotome Ranma."

"Would you like some food?" The black haired on asked.

"What you got?" He asked, eying her bento.

"Whatever you want, I'm not really hungry." She slid the box towards him.

'Your offering is accepted.' Ranma started to rethink swallowing his pride if he got free food. Though he really had to revise his view of things, when more people started to notice him.

"Hey, what's this thing?" A boy with light brown hair asked.

"He's a dragon." One of the girls he had been talking to supplied the answer.

Things seemed to escalate from there, and soon Ranma found himself the center of attention for a great number of students. 'Maybe I shouldn't have drew attention.' He considered the option that he was receiving too much. 'But it sure beats class.' He laughed to himself.

"Ranma, what are you doing?" Akane's voice and person interrupted someone who was about to give him a piece of chocolate cake, and he couldn't remember the last time he had some.

"What?" He snapped angrily.

"You－ you're a dragon you idiot." She pointed out the obvious.

"Akane, do you know Ranma?" The girl, who had just been about to give him cake, asked. "Isn't he just the cutest?"

"Don't bother with her." Ranma proceeded to ignore Akane. "I'm just staying at her house. Now about that cake." He pouted when he noticed that Akane had become the center of the cake girl's attention.

"Why didn't you say you had a dragon living at your house?" She asked.

"Cause I don't want him living at my house Sayuri." Akane answered. "And why are you feeding that leech food?"

"Cause he's cute." The girl said as if it was the stupidest thing in the world, finally giving Ranma his chocolate cake. Watching Akane from the corner of his eye, Ranma noticed that the girl looked ready to physically attack him.

"In that case, would you like something to wash it down." Akane suggested with a sinister grin. "Some cool water perhaps?"

"You wouldn't dare." He growled.

"Try me." Akane's grin spread fully across her face.

"And what is this?" The voice which had proclaimed himself Kuno Tatewaki earlier, broke in before Ranma could put Akane in her proper place. "A foul beast has invaded this place of learning."

"Foul－ beast?" Ranma asked dangerously.

"It appears that the monster has seen fit to enslave the female populace." The tall boy continued to ramble. "As the Captain of the Kendo Club, it is my duty to vanquish this monster, and free those who have been enslaved!" With a flourish of motion, the boy brought out a boken, and pointed it in his direction. "Prepare yourself fiend."

"_Shatter._ " Ranma commanded and the wooden sword broke apart like a piece of glass. "_Wind Hammer_." The ether vents on his neck lit up, a purple circle of swirling wind appearing in front of his nose, and sending a small mental command, the solid block of wind slammed into Kuno. Knocked backwards, the boy crashed through several students before skidding to a stop on the grass.

"Maybe you're not so bad." Akane commented, verbally applauding his attack.

Staring at the downed form, Ranma felt a small pang of something in his chest. For a moment, he remembered being back on Jade, and some of the comments he used to get from other dragons, all of which were far more hurtful than the words of some human. Something else must have been causing this, he must have been around humans too much, or maybe it might be because he had been turning into one.

Growing agitated over not pinpointing the source of the feeling, he gave a powerful leap straight up into the air, and after several strong flaps of his wings, he was on his way to the Tendo home. Not having had the opportunity to stretch his wings for months now, he took his time, making large circles in the sky. It wasn't till after he arrived, did he realize how close he had come to some storm clouds, which would have turned him into a human, and that would have meant falling to his death. (5)

'I have to get rid of that human body.' He resolved, turning into a girl wouldn't be half as bad if he was still a dragon.

"School out already?" Genma asked, the panda cursed man sitting cross legged in the doorway outside from the living room.

"School's too boring." He answered, hopping up to sit next to Genma, and looked out into the yard to try and see what Genma was seeing. "Just like it was before, how'd you get me in there anyways?"

"Your grades were good enough." Genma lied.

Ranma knew that his grades would not have let him get into a high school. When he had been younger, he could put aside his arrogance to actually listen to teachers, but as he got older that had quickly changed. It didn't help that anything dealing with technology caused him to freeze up. 'Oh do I hate computers.'

"Well, if you're not going to school, we should get some training in." Genma clapped him on the back of his shoulders.

"Not in the mood." Which didn't really mean he didn't want to take his mind off things, just that he might go too far accidentally. As easy as magic was for him to do, it was equally easy to go too far.

"Use your cursed form." The bald martial artist suggested.

"I don't want to be human right now." In truth he didn't want to even be in human form right now, let alone be a full human.

"In that case, bring out your ball, and call your mom. I have some things I want to tell her about."

"You what?"

"Oh yes, I'm going to tell her all about you getting depressed because something happened at school. How her little bwaby Wanma is having a tough time in the human world. Well, come on, bust out the ball."

"What are you getting at old man?" Ranma growled.

"You－ can't－ take－ it." Genma poked him on the end of his snout.

"Take what?" He demanded.

"The big bwad dragon can't handle human life."

"How dare you!" Ranma pounced at Genma, hitting the man's chest, and driving him to the ground. "Take it back!" He yelled, just as he noticed Genma's fingers hitting the ticklish spot just behind his shoulders, and along his flank.

"Never." Genma's fingers dug in, and Ranma started to laugh before wriggling his way free.

"That was low old man." Ranma crouched down, and moved away as Genma came towards him. "And now you're going to get it!"

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

Draconic language – described as a "weird French" by Gina Diggers. Ranma knows this, Basic(English), and Japanese. Owing to his human heritage, he appears to be Japanese, other than eye/hair color.

(1) – Arkis hunts dragons and sells their hides on a black market. He's lucky in that most dragons can't remember human faces that well, so if he disappears for a while, they don't recognize him. Fortunately for Ranma, as a young dragon he has an inborn wind form enchantment that makes him really fast, in exchange for mass. As Ranma grows this enchantment lessens and lessens.

(2) – Dragons see magic and ethereal energies normally, there is so much information that they literally feel blind without it.

(3) – Dirty mind Kasumi, bad bad.

(4) – All dragons have an impossible to resist hording instinct. Ranma has fixated on plush animals of all kinds, though he still enjoys shiny expensive objects.

(5) - Ranma has a bit of a complex about being seen as 'less than he is', Kuno struck a nerve, and just like Akane he'll come to regret it. Kuno's comments stuck easier because Ranma was in a relaxed mood, he didn't have his mental defenses up so to speak.

－-

"**How to Placate a Plush Collecting Dragon Omake" - Tornado Ninja fan**

Ranma was pissed. This couldn't continue. "GGRRRAH! My vengeance is nigh, Nabiki!"

"Indeed, Saotome. Meet little Vengeance-chan, Ranma-kun." Nabiki said and got a plushie out of her seemingly bottomless bag. "Ranma-kun, this is Vengeance-chan. It's yours, if you could just forgive me... one last time." She continued and fluttered her eyelids.

"So... cute. Must. Resist. Ak!" He grabbed it and left. "One last time, Nabiki." He threatened from outside the room.

"Of course, Saotome. Just like the other last times." Nabiki then frowned and thought. "But he didn't try to resist the first couple of times."

－-

"**You Horde What?" - Innortal**

"Ah, my manly son. What are you hording today?"

"Pogs!"

"... I have no son."

－-

**"That's it!" - Innortal**

"My son, what are you doing?"

"Gotta catch'em all! Gotta catch'em all! Gotta catch'em all!"

"That is it. From now on, I will inform you of what you are collecting and hording."

－-

"**I'll Take the Moon!" - Innortal**

"Son, no; you cannot collect magic girls."

"But why, Mom?"

"Because they do nothing but attract magic boys who are always engaged to them through some long drawn-out backstory, show up, and cause untold amounts of damage. Now send them back to where you got them from. Besides, that blond one doesn't look too bright."

"Hey! Captured magical princesses are to be respected, not insulted! In the name of the Moon, I shall punish you!"

－-

"**Does It Really?" - TerraBull**

"Ranma? Why are you sleeping on a Giant Pile of Leaves?"

"Well? You always said I should sleep on some valuable stuff, they use 'money' here instead of gold, made from Tree's, an I have heard the phrase 'You think Money grows on Trees?' a lot, so? Here I am sleeping on something softer than gold."

Ranma's mother had to shake her head.

－-

"**NO MOAR!" - Belgarion213**

"My son, what are you collecting now?"

"The battered corpses of people who kept having me collect stupid and pointless objects hat ended up making me look like an utter moron instead of just somebody with slightly unusual taste for my horde"

"...okaaay"

－-

"**A Very Zen Omake" - Kenko**

"Ah... Ranma, I do not see your hoard here... or anywhere."

"I'm hoarding... nothing."

"That seems rather improper－"

"No. See, Mother, by not hoarding material wealth or items, and in fact giving almost everything I have of material value away, I gain vast amounts of nothing! IN fact, if I'm right, I have more nothing than any other dragon alive－ I probably have the largest hoard existing!"

Nodoka blinked, and slowly turned to Genma.

"Well... Dear, from a certain Zen perspective that makes perfect sense..."


	2. Hello Mother

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

_Spell_

(Low Speak – Draconic way of communicating that is spoken at levels too low for most creatures to hear)

X x x x x x

"So Akane, how do you like your new boyfriend?" Nabiki snickered at her.

"Leave me alone Nabiki." She responded, dragging her feet on the way back home.

"Look on the bright side. If you have a boyfriend, then you don't have to fight every morning."

"I am NOT going to go out with some boy because of that stupid challenge Kuno set up." She answered with a growl.

"I'm just saying." Nabiki seemed unconcerned that Akane had just had one of the worst days of her life. Between Kuno hounding her, that boy who had pinned her to the ground, she didn't even want to know his name, and Ranma leaving her to collect his book bag, it was a day that she just wanted to forget. It also didn't look like it would be getting any better, now she would have to deal with that smug lizard at home. 'I should make him into a purse, or a jacket.'

Coming into view of their home, a bright flash of light happened behind the wall. Turning to her sister, Nabiki shared a similar look of worry. Hastening their pace, they caught sight of a brightly glowing orange sphere of magic that shot up into the sky to detonate like it was a firework. Hurrying through the gate, they found Genma and Ranma, in dragon form, squaring off next to the koi pond.

"What are you two doing?" Akane demanded angrily.

"Sparring." Genma answered, breathing heavily.

"You're tearing up the yard!" She pointed out all the damage being done. Several spots of grass were wilted and dead, a tree was toppled over, and there were scorch marks on the outside wall.

"It'll grow back." Ranma said dismissively, changing back into a human, his blue hair now only down to his jaw, wearing a white gi, and attacking his father with a flurry of quick blows.

Genma evaded, attacking with a kick that Ranma avoided by jumping back and landed next to the koi pond. The elder martial artist was on his son in an instant, going low to trip Ranma into the water, which Ranma evaded by leaping several meters upwards. Genma followed, exchanging several punches, the older man locked up Ranma's hands, and they finally started their descent into the water. Ranma quickly changed into his dragon form, and while his hands were still tied up, he struck Genma in the ribs with his tail. Released, Ranma rocketed off to the safety of the grass, and Genma hit the water.

"Ha!" Ranma laughed, breathing heavily.

"They're very skilled aren't they?" Soun suddenly broke in, standing a step to her right, and Akane briefly looked at her father with surprise.

"I guess." She admitted, they were certainly very acrobatic and quick. Ranma's sudden shifting back and forth would be very distracting, she would have to remember to watch out for that if she ever sparred with the dragon.

"You guess?" Ranma spun around to face her. "A clumsy human like you couldn't hope to be half as good." He said haughtily.

"That's it!" Rearing back with Ranma's bookbag in her hand, she prepared to throw it at the dragon's head, and then beat the uppity boy into the ground. When a small wave of water splashed over Ranma, and in the dragon's place, now stood a naked well built blue haired girl, with hair now down to her neck, fanning out and curling upwards at the ends.

"You dirty old man!" Ranma turned back to the panda-man, giving all three of them a view of her backside. "I was talking to that tomboy." The cursed girl grabbed Genma by the fur on his chest and hit him repeatedly over the head.

#You let your guard down# A dazed Genma held up a sign.

"What are you doing?" Akane panicked. "Cover up you idiot!"

"Cover what up?" Ranma craned her neck to look at her, a clueless expression on her face.

"Hey Akane." Yuka spoke, her and Sayuri stepping through the front gate. "We came to see if－." Her friend trailed off.

"Akane there's a naked girl beating up a giant panda." Sayuri pointed out.

"Oh I so need to get my camera for this." Nabiki excitedly ran off into the house.

Akane paled, envisioning all the gossip that would start up if the students at school ever found out that she had a nudist living at her home. Grabbing a distracted Ranma around the false girl's thin waist, she hauled her into the home, and deposited her in the change room of the furo.

"What are you doing?" Ranma demanded angrily, placing both hands on her hips.

"Put on some clothes you idiot." Akane grabbed the handle of the outside door to prevent Nabiki from finding them. "You know, 'form them' or whatever you do."

"I－ don't feel like it." Ranma attempted to cross her arms over her breasts like a man would, but found her arms blocked, so she lowered them, and crossed them underneath.

"Then change back you idiot."

"I'm going to." Ranma huffed, spinning on her heel and entering the bath area.

Opening the outside door, she yelled back. "And don't come out naked as a male." Akane could see Ranma doing just that.

Stomping back through the house to the front door, she met with her friends who were nervously inspecting Genma still in panda form, the man playing the part of a panda. Akane frowned at her own father, who was frozen in the spot he had been in earlier, a slight trickle of drool coming down from one corner of his mouth.

"Could you come back later maybe?" She asked. "We're－ kind of busy with something."

"With the naked girl?" Sayuri asked.

"And when did you get a panda." Yuka tentatively poked the big animal in the side of his arm.

"Akane, where's." Nabiki stopped dead in the door, a camera in one hand. "You didn't."

"I did." She answered, smiling at her sisters anger.

"I'm very disappointed in you." Nabiki admonished, shaking a finger.

"Real big loss for me then." Akane ignored her elder sister, turning back to her friends. "I'll tell you all about it at school tomorrow." She bargained.

"Alright, but we want details, not just a summary." Yuka shot back.

"Yes yes." She placated, and waved good bye to her two friends as they reluctantly

X x x x x x

Years ago on Jade

"This is Seer's Hamlet." Nod'ka in human form explained to him. She was dressed in a tight sleeveless silver dress down to her knee's, a wide blue belt bound it at her waist. Her blue hair was swept back from her forehead, ending where her neck did, and fanning out slightly into six spikes, mimicking her head crest in her real form.

"Ooh." Ra'ma looked upwards into the trees, where walkways, and circular buildings were constructed up into the sky. Having entered into the rift pocket, and going up the small set of steps, he stood on a platform that extended out, before changing into a cobblestone path that weaved through the tree trunks. Dozens of shops lined the path, each with interesting, and up till now unknown objects on them. This was his first time being allowed to come with his mother on her trips out of the lair to the human world, his father being left behind due to being 'naughty' as his mother put it.

Usually his mother spent all her time in the library, reading through books and scrolls that were brought to her, and he was stuck alone with nothing but books to read. Though she did often give him a magic scroll to look at, and many of the books also contained spells. So he knew far more spells than he should have at his age, even if he couldn't do most of them.

"Excuse me Ma'am." Walking up to them was a muscular human wearing a dark green tunic, and black pants. Ra'ma shifted himself slightly closer to his mother's legs. "But even dragons are required to pay the toll to enter."

"Toll?" Nod'ka looked confused for a moment. "Oh yes, it's so hard to remember, even though I come here once a year." She said casually, pulling out two gold coins, and throwing them back at the entrance where they vanished.

"Thank you very much." The man bowed his head slightly forward, before turning and heading back to a small building to the right.

"Let's go Ra'ma." Nod'ka took off walking purposely for the closet walkway that lead up into the trees.

Trotting after her on all fours, his head swung side to side as he constantly changed his attention. Crossing over a walkway that dropped close to twenty meters down to the forest floor, Ra'ma paused to peak his head through the railing, looking down, he watched the humanoids busily going about their business.

"Come along son, this isn't the time for sight seeing." His mother drew his attention, and he quickly ran up to her side.

"There's so many Momma." He commented, being overwhelmed by the amount of sentients in this one area.

"Yes there are." She answered, entering into a tree building named the 'Brass Bone Inn'. Inside were a couple dozen humanoids seated at tables around a circular bar at the center, or booths that lined the walls. Lighting the bar, were small three clawed shaped magical light poles placed on the walls. Immediately he noticed a wonderful, delicious, almost intoxicating smell filling the inside.

"Lady Nod'ka." Appearing before them was a tall humanoid with golden skin, large draconic wings jutted from his back, and he had a silver blue unicorn horn coming from his forehead. His darker gold hair was split in the middle, with the bangs hanging down to his chin. Ra'ma immediately noticed that this was who was giving off such a delicious scent.

"Agen, its been some time has it not?" His mother greeted warmly. "Is D'bra here yet?"

"No, she sent me a message that she was being delayed at work. If you want to take a seat, I'll have a waiter bring you some food."

"That would be fine." Nod'ka agreed.

"So who's this little guy?" Agen knelt down to look him in the eye. Ra'ma briefly backed away, unsure on how to act around the strange humanoid. He wasn't even sure the man was a humanoid. "Is this Ra'ma?" The man asked smiling pleasantly.

"Yes, this is my little boy, and it's is his first time visiting a humanoid city." Nod'ka explained.

"It's nice to meet you." Agen held out a hand to be shook. "I'm Agen."

Smiling brightly, happy to make a new friend, he reached his forepaw forward to shake the man's hand. "Ra'ma."

"How about you have a seat, and I'll send something special over to you?" Agen suggested.

"Will it smell as good as you do?" He asked, this man's smell was one of the most delicious things that he had ever encountered, and he wondered if he tasted as good. But his mother had said that it was not alright to eat anything sentient, no matter how good they smelled.

"Ah, heh heh, no it probably won't." Agen chuckled nervously. "But you go have a seat, and I'll get you something you've never had before." Rapidly nodding his head, he took off in a random direction, before realizing that he didn't know where to sit, there were so many options.

"This way Ra'ma." Nod'ka laughed at him with her voice, his mother taking a seat in one of the booths. Hopping up on to the plush leather half circle seat next to his mother, he practically bounced on the seat waiting for whatever special treat the good smelling man brought him. "Patience." She instructed, running a hand along the top of his head.

"Here you go." Agen returned carried a small mug in one hand, and a long stemmed wine glass with a red liquid in it. "Ambrosia for Milady, and some root beer for the young man."

"You aren't trying to serve my child alcohol are you?" Nod'ka asked, grabbing the mug that had been placed in front of him, and gave it several brief sniffs. She pursed her lips, finding fault with the small bubbles that were popping out of the top of the liquid. Ra'ma watched it eagerly, entranced by the strange dark brown beverage.

"It's an Earth drink, it's carbonated, which means it fizzes, and it's non-alcoholic." Agen explained. "I'm considering bringing in some more goods cross realms. There's a wide variety in food and drink in that realm, and anything to beat the competition."

"Indeed, if there is no monopoly then you aren't trying hard enough." Nod'ka slid the drink back over in front of him. Standing up, he leaned forward, and nearly put his nose in the cup to take a sniff of the drink. Immediately some small bubbles seemed to hang in his nostrils, and he sneezed causing the drink to splash up into his face.

X x x x x x

Nabiki was unhappy about not being able to take some nude photographs of Ranma's female form. It was criminal how cute Ranma was as a girl, and it would be even worse if she didn't use that beauty to full effect. There simply didn't seem to be anyway to force Ranma into letting her take advantage of him. He seemed just as intelligent as any human, perhaps even more so, and he had magic that she had no clue on the limit of.

Glancing across the table at the dragon in human form, she wondered what other secrets she could learn about Jade, and the other beings that lived there. Knowledge was power after all. Another issue in her mind was that they had two people living in their home, for no real reason. Ranma wasn't about to marry Akane, Nabiki didn't really want to do the same, and Kasumi was more interested in the cute dragon than the human version.

"Why are they even staying here?" Akane asked angrily, voicing Nabiki's own concern.

"Indeed Daddy, it's fairly obvious that this farce of an engagement isn't going to happen." She added, not that she was adverse to having a dragon living in her home, what with all the financial possibilities. But if Ranma wasn't going to play ball, then why bother having him around?

"Saotome-kun is an old friend, he and his son, can stay as long as they please." Soun explained, and she rolled her eyes. "So Akane, how was school today?" The Tendo patriarch changed the subject.

"I don't want to talk about it." The youngest Tendo replied through gritted teeth, and with enough venom in her voice that Soun quickly changed his attention.

"How about you Ranma? How was your first day at Furinkan?"

"Boring." The half dragon answered.

"Guess you are a bit normal then." The corner of Nabiki's mouth curved up into a smirk.

"You mean you don't find that interesting either?" Ranma asked incredulously.

"It's something you do so you can get a good job, you don't have to like it." Akane explained.

"Why do I have to go to school again Father?" Ranma suddenly asked Genma.

"For an education." The bald martial artist answered through a mouthful of food.

"Mom didn't need an－ education." The boy grumbled, bringing up an interesting question.

"What does－ a dragon do anyways?" Nabiki asked, her curiosity piqued.

Ranma gave her a suspicious look before answering. "She's a librarian."

"That sounds like a nice profession." Kasumi added sweetly.

"Sounds really." Nabiki paused, searching for a word. "Boring, aren't dragons supposed to hoard treasure, kidnap virgin maidens, slay some samurai or should that be knights? Since it appears that European legends were right on what dragons look like."

"Sheesh, where are you getting your information? Only thing you got right was when you said hoard." Ranma gave a short sarcastic laugh.

"You－ collect treasure then?" Nabiki couldn't believe it, she hadn't thought about this. Ranma didn't even carry around a pack, so if he collected treasure, then he must have a safehouse somewhere filled with shiny trinkets, rubies, gold, jewels, and other priceless artifacts. 'What have I done?' She mentally screamed.

"What kind of dragon would I be if I didn't?" Ranma puffed up with pride.

"Ranma." Nabiki started, adding a little quiver to her voice. "I'm sorry for－ not being as friendly, and accommodating to you as a guest in our home."

"You're kidding right?" Ranma laughed at her, and Nabiki blinked several times, wondering if he had saw through her act, or if he was just being rhetorical. "This morning you were trying to blackmail me, and now you're sucking up and apologizing after finding out that I hoard treasure. I mean－ wow, you must really think I'm stupid or something."

'Well that answers that.' Nabiki kept up the charade, even throwing in some tears. "I really am, I can't imagine how hard it must be for you."

"I can't believe you Nabiki." Akane glared at her. "Do you have to take advantage of everyone?"

"You're so mean Akane." Nabiki added a sniffle. "Poor Ranma, separated from his mother, cursed to become something he's not, how could I not feel for his plight?" At her last word, she noticed that everyone else, except for Kasumi, was staring at her like she had grown three heads, a tail, and possibly some tentacles.

X x x x x x

"See boy, just be nice, and there's no problem."

Ranma's answer to his father's boast was a snort, while laying half on his stuff dragon, in dragon form himself. He always slept like this, his plush dragon calmed him down, the scent of his mother still lingering on it, which was likely due to it being created from her aura. He didn't lock Genma out of the room again, even though he viewed it as his own temporary lair.

"And stay the whole day at school tomorrow." Genma dropped on to his futon and spread himself out. "I didn't pay all that money for you to skip out."

"How much did you pay anyways?" Ranma asked, knowing that he could have gotten tutored on Jade by a dragon for a reasonable amount. His mother had brought it up a couple times half heartedly over the years, and the prospect was looking more and more appealing.

"Enough that you shouldn't be skipping." Genma answered. "So, what did happen at school today?"

"Just some idiot trying to attack me with a wooden sword." Ranma fought down the urge to laugh at the notion. What kind of idiot attacks a dragon with wood? Slinking off of his plush dragon, he sat down next to it, and pulled out several small fully articulated figurines from his rift pocket. The wonderful thing about his mother's job, was that he had learned a few more advanced spells for holding vast amounts on his person like a bag of holding.

One was a fully grown platinum dragon, standing thirty centimeters tall. The other figures were a human, a werelion, an abyssalisk slightly bigger than the dragon, and a few kobolds. The abyssalisk, a creature Ranma never wanted to encounter, was vaguely draconic from head till their shoulders, and then they had a long wyrm like body. Kobolds were dragon-like humanoids, they were taller than normal humans, and even had wings. The humanoid figures were the smallest, standing only fifteen centimeters tall.

"Do you have to play with those?" Genma asked, and Ranma narrowed his eyes at the man. Mage toys were one step down from weapons. With the proper control, they could be an incredibly effective distraction. "Just asking."

"Ranma." Akane slid the door open. "I forgot to give you this." She dropped his bookbag to the left of the door. "Wow, that's a big plush dragon." The youngest Tendo commented.

"It is, isn't it." Ranma smiled proudly, while not the biggest of his collection, it was his obvious favorite.

"Wait, why do you have a big plush animal?" Akane asked.

"Should I not?" He asked angrily. Why was it that everyone always thought he was funny for collecting plush animals? Of course he had his fair share of valuable objects, what dragon didn't?

"Well－ nothing I guess." Akane said timidly, taken back but his sudden anger.

"You want to see some more that I have?" He asked excitedly, it was so rare that he actually got to show off his hoard.

"Uh, okay."

"Alright." Raising his right hand, he pulled out a small goofy faced blue eastern dragon. "I got this one in Osaka soon after I first came to Earth realm." Placing it on the floor, he pulled out a brown dog. "This one was from a shop in Miyazu." Next he pulled out a big bear. "I think this was from Hanyu."

Five minutes later, he was still excitedly pulling out various sized plush creatures from storage. "Then this black pig caught my eye in Changsha, China." By now there were a little over a hundred plush animals of various sizes, shapes, and species forming a pile around him.

"Ranma." Akane interrupted him before he could pull out another.

"What? Am I going too fast?" He asked.

"Uh no, it's just, I'm not that interested."

"Oh." Ranma pouted, dismissing everything but the mage figures he had out before. 'As usual.'

"Anyways, I was just dropping off your books, no homework, otherwise I would have remembered sooner." Akane seemed to be expecting something.

"I wouldn't have done any homework anyways." Ranma ignored Akane in favor of animating his action figures. All of them immediately bowed to him, and then the humanoids started to do battle with the abyssalisk, the dragon sat off to the side watching. While controlling so many figures at once in such a complicated series of movements would be near impossible for a human, as a dragon he had been able to freely move all the figures he had since the start.

"You're welcome." Akane said snidely, turning to storm off down the hall.

"What's her problem?" He asked his father, who was purposely laying on his futon while looking in the other direction. Without his concentration, the figures dropped to the floor lifelessly.

"You think you're so smart, figure it out." Genma said dismissively.

"So you do know." Bored with his figures, he dismissed them, and ran around to Genma's front. "Tell me." He demanded.

"Go to bed." Genma flipped himself.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me." He repeated, bouncing on Genma's side with his front legs.

"Alright alright." His father pushed him away, and sat up. "I'll explain it to you." Genma beckoned him closer with a finger, a conspiratorial look on his face. Ranma leaned in to listen. "Women you see－ are strange creatures. Well, you should know, you turn into one."

"Hey!" He protested.

"Just listen, being the unexplainable creatures that they are, women can expect things that us men won't ever think to do. The key, and I can't stress this enough, is to master this one phrase." Genma paused dramatically. "I'm sorry."

"That's it?" Ranma gave his father a withering gaze.

"It's that simple." Genma crossed his arms and nodded solemnly. "It doesn't matter if you haven't done anything. Just keep apologizing, no matter what she says."

"I wish I hadn't asked." Ranma shook his head sadly at his father's words of wisdom. "And you didn't even tell me what I wanted to know."

"Sure I did, it doesn't matter, if a woman's angry with you, apologize, odds are it will even work pretty good if you're not even sure that they're angry at you."

"Stupid old man." Ranma snorted.

X x x x x x

The next morning, Ranma was greeted at the gates of Furinkan by the wannabe samurai, he couldn't be bothered to remember the name. The boy was dressed in blue kendo garb, the color of which Ranma appreciated, and was wielding a real katana. With this delusional kendoist, was a group of ten other boys, all dressed in the same way, though they all carried wooden swords instead.

"Halt!" The leader shouted, pointing the steel blade at him. "You are Saotome Ranma are you not?"

"I am." Ranma answered, curious over the group's intention.

"Rumors around the school indicate that you employ that foul dragon who ran from my might yesterday. I will give you one chance to plead your innocence." The leader demanded.

"No, I am the dragon." Ranma pointed to himself, choosing to ignore the 'foul' comment, to let this idiot dig himself a deeper grave.

"You think to mock me? I see now that you are the true source of the beasts power. Then you shalt not pass, this hall of learning and instruction is for only the finest examples of humanity! And I, Kuno Tatewaki, shall not suffer the presence of you, or your beast at this institution! Have at thee!" The boy shifted his sword into an attack position, and charged forward, the group behind him following a moment later.

"_10 Minute Group Amnesia!_ " Ranma shouted, raising both hands in front of him with his palms facing down, and wiggling his fingers. Immediately the group of charging boys tripped over themselves, and fell to the ground. Smirking, he shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked past the dazed group. "I'm going to have some fun with you." He laughed cruelly.

X x x x x x

With his hands clasped behind his head, Ranma had his feet up on the desk, and his chair leaning up on its back legs. He was relaxing between classes, not that he didn't relax during them, but he had to look like he was paying some attention. The only good thing about being forced to sit in one spot for so long, was that he had plenty of time to think.

The curse he had, eluded his ability to understand, he could see it's workings, knew what it did. But that allowed him to get no closer to solving how to get rid of it, or at least modify it so that he didn't turn into a human. So far all the anti curse magic that he knew had been shrugged off, like he had been throwing a punch into a tsunami. Even when he had gotten bored and tried one on Genma, the result was the same, so it must be a safe guard to prevent all but the exact counter spell. The stupid thing even used up his own ether to force the change, in an overly efficient and impossible way.

Deflecting a request to turn into his true form so a student could take some pictures, he agreed to do it later though, to reward the human for wanting to see his superior form. He frowned when the delusional boy from earlier stormed into the room, still dressed the same garb, and carrying the sword.

"I have come for the foul magician Saotome Ranma, I know that it was he who placed this mental affliction upon my person earlier this morning. Tell me, where is the one in league with the monstrous dragon."

"_10 Minute Amnesia_ ." Ranma commanded, lazily pointing at the older boy, who instantly froze up.

"What am I doing here?" Kuno asked, blinking several times, and glancing around.

"You were just leaving." Ranma pointed out.

"I was?" Kuno frowned. "Why was I doing that?"

"This isn't your class?" Ranma guessed.

"So it isn't." Kuno nodded and rubbed his chin. "Good day then." Turning, the human headed off down the hall.

"Well that sucks, I'm already bored with that." He sighed, before noticing that the rest of the class was perfectly silent.

"Could you do that more often?" Akane asked seriously. "Like, erase his memory back till he was in diapers?"

"That'd be boring." He answered. "I'll have to come up with something else." Tapping a finger to his lips he pondered the dilemma.

X x x x x x

"I got it." Ranma snickered while padding along the roadway back to the Tendo home. If this Kuno wanted to be a nuisance to him, then he would give the human what annoyed him the most. Passing through the open gate, he headed for the koi pond. Dropping off his book bag on the side, he stared at the water.

'I'll need a lot of ether for this. Too bad I don't have a mymior I could store it in. But I think I can do it if I save up.' Closing his eyes, he brought up both of his heads, and pointed them palm first at the water. "First a test." As he gathered the needed energy, a ring of light half a meter across appeared below his hands. It took him five minutes to gather the needed ether, and as soon as he had it, he cast the spell. With a flash of golden light, the ring vanished, and a soft white glow settled over the water. Ranma smiled at seeing the first ring of the spell sitting firmly in place, without wavering or falling apart.

"I was right." He frowned, knowing that combining magic was supposed to be next to impossible, even for a dragon. Yet if what he thought was correct, there were three spells that combined seamlessly, and they were self sustaining, from some out of the way place in China. They even appeared to be part of a Draconian spell circle.

"What are you up to boy?" Genma asked from behind him.

Jerking in shock, he regained his composure and turned to his old man. "Just working on curing the curse." He answered, giving his father a half truth. Genma wouldn't be able to understand that he's trying to do impossible magic. 'I bet if I can master combining magic, someday I'll be the leader of all dragons. No one will dare call me a half breed then!'

"Boy, stop laughing maniacally." Genma commanded.

"Eh?" Ranma paused, realizing that he had indeed started to laugh. "I'll laugh maniacally if I want." He shot back, feeling the small ether pulse of his palantir. "This can't be good." Drawing out the black sphere, he allowed the connection, and found himself face to face with his mother in human form standing in her library. "Um, hello Mother." He greeted hesitantly, this being the most contact that he had shared with her for years, and it was making him nervous.

"Well that's just unacceptable." She huffed. "My own child acting like I am a stranger." The connection between the two magical devices suddenly caught off, leaving Ranma blinking several times.

"What do you think that means?" He asked Genma, who was looking around nervously.

The air a meter in front of him suddenly rippled, and with a soft whirring noise, a three meter wide circular portal expanded into existence. On the other side of the realm spanning doorway was his mother's library, and walking through to step out on to the grass was a pair of zori clad feet, was his mother. She scrunched up her face, and glanced around the yard, inspecting everything with her eyes.

"I forgot how pungent the Earth realm can be." She remarked in Basic, her voice being translated by a spell.

"Mo-Mom, what are you doing here?" He panicked. 'Oh no! She'll find out about the curse!'

"I felt like taking a break, so I shifted some appointments around, and decided to drop in." Nod'ka answered, tugging at the obi holding her silver kimono together, with small almost transparent dragons flying up from the bottom to the shoulder on the right side. "I feel a bit overdressed, perhaps a formal kimono was not the best choice." Her clothes quickly changed into a white loose dress down to mid calf, short sleeves, and a deep V neckline. "That's better."

"Hello dear." Genma slid up next to Nod'ka, who turned to look directly at the human without recognition.

"Oh, hello husband." She answered belatedly, finally recognizing him. "How have you been?"

"We just talked the other night." Genma pointed out.

"Did we?" Nod'ka asked looking away and putting a finger to her lips. "Oh well, it's good to see that you haven't hurt yourself. Now how's my little boy?" She gushed, running up and hugging him.

"Aw Mom." He whined, feeling vaguely uncomfortable about being around his mother after so long. The last time would have to have been on his last birthday, and he just knew this would be embarrassing.

X x x x x x

"That jerk skipped out on cleaning duty again." Akane snarled, walking home with Nabiki once again. "I can't believe him."

"Are you really surprised?" Nabiki countered.

"He could at least stick around and look like he's involved. But no, he runs off as soon as the last class is done."

"Careful sis, people might think you like him." Nabiki teased.

"I don't like him, I just want him to do his part. You're lucky Nabiki, you don't have to be in the same class. He's so arrogant about every little thing." Akane tried to imitate Ranma's voice and smug attitude. "You want me to do that? Ask somebody else. I'm a dragon, you do it." Finished, she dropped the voice. "Teachers don't even ask him questions anymore."

Walking through the gate, she caught sight of Ranma with some woman hugging him, and Genma looking dejected off to the side next to the koi pond. "There you are." She stormed over to the trio, focusing on the cause of her annoyance. "You skipped out on cleaning again."

"Genma, who is this girl, and why is she expecting my son to do servant's work?" The foreign woman asked, letting Ranma go to look at Genma.

"Your son?" Akane asked, glancing between the tall woman and the unwanted house guest. She was tall, easily the same height as Soun, with long feathered blue hair swept back and reaching down to her shoulder blades. The silver dress she wore looked painted on for the top, while the bottom was loose. Appearing in her mid twenties at best, she looked like some kind of model. She had a Caucasian cast to her features, with an oval face, and strikingly beautiful blue eyes.

"Yes, my son." The woman scoffed. "Who are you to think you can demand him to do servants work?" She demanded, suddenly seeming more intimidating than overly beautiful.

"This is Akane." Genma suddenly interrupted, appearing at her side, and grabbing both of her shoulders. "She's Ranma's－ possible fiancée."

"I'm not his anything." Akane corrected, brushing the bald man's hands from her shoulders.

"This girl is the one you tried to choose?" Ranma's mother approached her, the blue eyes seeming to pick her apart. "Not much to look at, no magical ability what so ever, and she expects him to do servant's work? Husband are you getting senile in your old age?"

"I'm not that old." Genma corrected.

"So I take it you're a dragon then?" Nabiki finally joined the conversation.

"Of course, what else would I be?" The woman answered casually, turning her eyes to Nabiki.

"Then why don't you look at all like him? Other than the hair color." Nabiki continued.

"What an inquisitive little human you are. To answer your question, I don't look at all like this, neither does Ra'ma look like his human form does. It's a disguise spell, surely your education should have informed you of a disguise spell." The woman look pensive for a moment.

"Their schools don't cover magic." Ranma answered.

" Oh, oh yes, this realm lacks magic, and the other sentient species all left for Jade. So there are a great many things you are ignorant about. Well I suppose I can't hold _that_ against you."

"Do you mind at least introducing yourself?" Nabiki countered. "I like to know who's insulting me."

"You caught that did you?" The woman laughed lightly to herself. "My name is Nod'ka, and your's human?"

"Tendo Nabiki." The middle sister bowed politely.

"Genma dear, if you wanted to joke about an engagement, you should have done it with this one." Nod'ka joked. "Would this be the home you're staying at?" She directed her question at Ranma, turning her back to Akane and her sister.

"This is it." Ranma responded.

"Are you going to show me around? Or I should I just do as I please?" Nod'ka asked Ranma again.

"I can show you around." Nabiki offered and Akane immediately grabbed her sister and whispered in her ear.

"What are you doing? Do you want two Ranma's around?" She hissed.

"Little sister you're not thinking are you?" Nabiki whispered back, hiding her mouth with her hand. "She's a dragon, they hoard things, expensive things, and I'm planning for early retirement, as in never have to work a day in my life retirement."

"Fine, suck up, see if I care." Shaking her head in disgust, Akane noticed that both Ranma and his mother were looking at them, looking as though they heard every word. 'Wait, Ranma doesn't have that good of hearing, does he?'

"Such a greedy little human." Nod'ka giggled again. "That's good, if my little boy is going to be staying here, he needs someone to keep him on his toes." Clapping her hands, she smiled pleasantly. "Lead the way."

X x x x x x

" I suppose there are worse places to live. Why I remember that last hovel that you tried to pass off as a－ what did you call it again?" Nod'ka asked Genma, the tour of the home having ended in the living room. Ranma sat close to his mother at the table, almost basking in the power the humans couldn't sense. While he would prefer her to be in her real form, she was far to large to fit in the yard without crushing everything.

"It was a short stay apartment." Genma answered and Ranma snickered at his father's bowed head, and kowtowed responses. It was always interesting to watch his father deal with his mother. Usually he couldn't inspire the same level of respect that Nod'ka did, at best he could get his father acting defeated. Which worked far too well, since Ranma would usually calm down before anything was accomplished.

'Sneaky old man.' He glowered.

"Ra'ma, why are you using your disguise spell to look older?" His mother finally asked him, he had been expecting it since the moment she had shown up. "I thought you looked different when we talked the other day."

"Older?" The three Tendo sisters asked.

"Mom." He started only to be interrupted.

"Oh yes, even though my little boy is part human, he is only five years old." Nod'ka explained.

"You're just a little kid!" Akane shrieked. "Daddy you tried to engage me to some little boy?"

"I didn't know!" Soun protested.

"Mom!" Ranma whined. "A year for Jade is different than on Earth."

"Really?" The blue haired woman asked.

"Yes, a year on Jade, is three on Earth. So I'm fifteen here."

"I see, it's been so long since I lived in this realm. But dragons and humans age differently anyways, so I suppose in Earth years you'd be closer to ten." Nod'ka supplied.

Ranma shrunk into himself, he was right, his mother did embarrass him. He had always kept his human age to close to those the same chronological age as himself. Humans simply didn't take him seriously if he looked like a child. Forgetting the problem he had of people treating him like a pet in his real form. Although he did enjoy getting free food.

"Is that why he's so cute in his dragon form?" Kasumi asked sweetly.

"Isn't he though?" Nod'ka answered girlishly. "Ra'ma, drop your disguise?"

"Alright." He agreed and assumed his real form, immediately Nod'ka started to appraise his form.

"You're definitely starting your growth spurt." She commented, pulling him close, and stroking the top of his head. "Seems like you've doubled your size since I last saw you."

"You don't shed your skin like a snake do you?" Akane asked and both Ranma and Nod'ka turned to look at the human.

"Do we look like snakes to you?" Nod'ka asked rhetorically.

"You look like a human to me." Akane answered.

"Akane be nice to our guest." Soun warned his daughter.

"I appear as a lower form of life because I did not think it proper for me to crush your home." Nod'ka told the girl.

"How big are you?" Nabiki asked curiously. "Ranma is pretty small, just how big is a full grown dragon?"

"Let's just say, one room in my lair is the size of your entire property." Nod'ka answered casually, pulling him partially up to lay on her lap. Folding his wings tight up against his back, and made himself comfortable, up until the point where Kasumi started to pet him.

"Awww, he looks so cute!" She gushed.

(This human amuses me.) Nod'ka low speaked to him, while making no move to stop Kasumi.

(She makes good food.) He pointed out, content to be with his mother, and not wanting to ruin it by pushing away the human.

(Should learn her place though. Petting a dragon? Who does this human think she is?)

(Akane needs that more.)

(The youngest? Perhaps, but I think if you were going to put a human in her place, start with the middle one.)

(She has already tried to blackmail me once.) He added.

(Ambitious.) Nod'ka seemed amused by the added information. (A shame she's just a human though.)

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" Kasumi asked his mother.

"No, I must be returning to Jade." Nod'ka answered simply. "I just wanted to make sure my little boy was in a good place for the next year."

"About that." Nabiki started. "The original deal was that Ranma stays with us because he was going to marry one of us. Are you expecting him to simply stay here for free?"

"There's no need for that Nabiki." Soun interjected. "Genma is my oldest friend and he and Ranma can stay as long as they like."

"You should feel honored that a dragon finds your abode acceptable to reside in." Nod'ka answered Nabiki's question.

"Honor doesn't exactly put food on the table does it?" Nabiki shot back.

"So what do you propose?" Nod'ka seemed to be humoring the request. Ranma knew that his mother understood that to get along with humans one had to make certain exceptions, such as paying for things occasionally. But he didn't understand why she was bartering with Nabiki, when Soun was the owner of the home, and had given him free reign to stay as long as he wished.

"Rent for one, food costs, utilities, and he has caused a significant amount of damage to the yard." Nabiki explained.

"Yes, such things can be expensive in an area like this." Nod'ka waved a hand and a piece of paper popped into existence on the table. "So I suppose I'll just cut through all of the details and purchase the home from you." The Tendo family all froze at the pronouncement.

"You can't possible expect us to just－ sell our home." Soun finally answered.

"That would be exactly what I'm proposing. Now I can't very well expect you to come up with an accurate price for the property, so it will have to be appraised. So this is just a formal declaration of my intent to buy." Nod'ka summoned up a pen, and wrote down her name in basic letters. "I've been looking for another summer home for some time."

"But－ but－ where will we live?" Soun asked, grabbing the paper to read it, his hands shaking as he slowly went through it.

"Live here, it would save me on hiring servants to keep the place livable." Nod'ka gave an uncaring shrug, and Ranma realized that his mother had been planning this from the start.

"We can't accept this." Nabiki took the paper from her father.

"And here I thought this was was a good deal for your family. You'll have a home to live in for the rest of your lives, I suppose I could also pay for all your dietary needs as well. I wouldn't want to show up and suddenly find the home without food. At most you'll need to find currency to buy other needs. Some would call that an early retirement." Nod'ka finished, smiling directly at Nabiki.

(I think you broke her.) Ranma told his mother, looking at Nabiki with almost visible yen signs in her eyes.

(Greedy humans are easy to manipulate.) She said back to him.

"I don't like this." Akane added her opinion. "Why would she just want to buy our house?"

"Seems like a good deal to me." Nabiki said while trying to quickly read through the contract. "Permanent free housing, free food, and she can't make us leave. All that seems to change is that there's a different name on who owns the property."

"But what does she get out of this?" Kasumi asked.

"I've grown interested in real estate of late, and this seems like a good opportunity." Nod'ka explained.

"I still don't like this." Akane added again.

"Sounds good to me." Soun grabbed the contract and signed his name. "So when will all this go through?"

"I'll have the proper offices contacted tomorrow." Nod'ka cast a spell to duplicate the contract, and made her copy vanish. Lightly, she pushed him off her lap, and rose to her feet. "I must be going now, I have a pair of elves who want me to archive a spell for them, and I shouldn't keep them waiting." Without waiting, Nod'ka headed out of the door in the hall to the outside.

"Can I come with?" He asked, following her out.

"No you cannot." Nod'ka switched to Draconic, and stopped her progress into an open space to look directly at him. "I've given you over two hours to tell me about this curse you have, and you have not said a word. I am very disappointed in you, since you seem to think you're so grown up, you can be grown up, and remain on your own."

"But." He protested. "Momma."

"No buts." She knelt down and grabbed both sides of his head. "When you're ready to quit this human nonsense, you can come home." Standing, she pointed her hand out into the yard and cast the gate spell. A circle with a triangle of equal size in the center appeared in mid air, and then the gate expanded so that it was tall enough for Nod'ka to walk through. "Keep my new home clean." She said in parting as the gate closed behind her.

"I knew it was good to have you around." Nabiki chuckled from his right.

Sniffling, he wiped at a tear that was falling from his eye, and turned to glare at Nabiki. 'Start with the middle one.' He thought, a plan already formulating in his mind. "Congratulations Nabiki, you'll make an excellent test subject." He announced in Draconic before trotting off into the home, chuckling to himself, and leaving the middle Tendo sister confused in his wake.

X x x x x x

Hair up in a towel and wearing a fluffy white bathrobe, Akane reached the top of the steps on her way back to her room. She was not at all happy about this deal her father and sister had made. Everything about it screamed that it was a bad deal. Showing up through a magical doorway was a dragon disguised as a human, who had a contract written out, and was prepared to pay what the house was worth, and keep Akane's family housed there permanently. No matter how good that sounded, there had to be a catch of some sort.

"The bath is open." She said while passing the room shared by the two unwanted house guests, but she froze mid step. "Ranma, is that you?" Sitting with Genma in the middle of the room was a young boy of about ten years old. He had the distinctive blue hair and eyes, and wore silver pants and sleeveless shirt.

"Who else would it be?" The boy asked with the same condescending tone that she had come to expect from Ranma.

"I'll go first boy, you always make it too hot." Genma rose to his feet.

"I don't need one." Ranma said as Genma past by Akane.

"So you are a little kid." She summarized.

"So you are an old lady." He shot back.

"I'm not old." She growled, her left eye violently twitching.

"Sure you are, I bet your body is already failing. I'll give you about eighty more years at best before you're done. Me? I won't even be fully grown." Ranma hopped to his feet, his head now only coming up to Akane's elbows. "Don't think to talk down to me because I chose to appear my real age." He instructed her seriously, a soft red glow surrounding the whites of his eyes.

"Well isn't that cute." Akane told Ranma with as much condescending attitude as she could muster. "The little boy is trying to act all grown up. But seriously, if you weren't such a jerk we wouldn't fight all the time." Patting Ranma on the top of his head, she headed off for her own room, ignoring his angry retort.

X x x x x x

Bookbag slung over his shoulder, Ranma's shoes tapped along the top of the fence bordering the canal. The sun was shining brightly with not a cloud in the sky, and he had to spend this glorious day sitting through human school. Turning his head to the human on the ground, he regarded Akane with a cool detachment.

"Why are you following me?" He asked.

"I'm not, I'm going to school." She answered, twisting her head in the opposite direction haughtily.

"You didn't have to leave at the same time."

"I just wanted to make sure that if some stranger kidnapped you that I'd get to see it."

"A long time ago, humans were part of every dragon's balanced diet." Ranma gave Akane a toothy smile. "So keep talking."

"You're not exactly threatening when you look like you should be in diapers." Akane teased.

"Not my fault humans are so stupid." He said with a shrug. "Poor blind hairless apes that you are."

"Who's your father again?"

"Dragon genes are dominant over all other species. I'm about as much a human, as you are, as laughable as it sounds, a dragon."

"Sure they are." Akane giggled.

Writing Akane off as a lost cause for the moment, he finished his walk to school, and passed easily by the group of boys from the day before trying to challenge him. While his change in age kept him from coming to their notice, Akane was badgered by the lead boy, ending with her punching him out. However, he did not escape notice of Akane's two friends.

"Ranma is that you?" Sayuri gasped. "What happened?"

"You're so tiny!" Yuka added.

"Just didn't feel like disguising myself to be older than I am." He said and crossed his arms.

"So you're just a baby dragon?" Yuka gushed, clasping her hands together.

"Wouldn't a baby dragon be called a hatchling?" Sayuri asked.

"I'm not a hatchling." He protested. "I just age differently." Grumbling, he knew this day would be a chore.

X x x x x x

"I hate human schools." Ranma snarled, purposely kicking a can he had found on the ground too hard, it was crushed instantly from the force, before skittering down the street. Half his class wouldn't stop badgering him with various inane questions. Most of the teachers hadn't cared in the least, if they noticed at all the change in his visible age. It did seem that Furinkan accepted new things rather quickly. No one had even seemed interested that he was a dragon anymore.

Pausing just outside the gate of his mother's new home, he finally noticed a familiar presence that should not have been there. In his disgust at humans he had missed sensing her earlier, but now she was impossible to miss. Dismissing his shoes as he entered the home, he padded through the hall, and into the living room to see a wyrm in human form kneeling attentively next to a wall. Genma and Soun were at the entrance to the room playing shogi. As soon as the golden haired woman noticed him, she immediately stood up, but kept her head bowed.

"Son, why is she here?" Genma asked him. "Your mother just sent her through a portal without a word."

"It's nice to see you Sire." She greeted in Draconic, ignoring Genma's question because she didn't know the language. Two was dressed in a simple orange skirt to her knees, and a short sleeved conservative lighter orange blouse. Her long golden blonde hair fell down to her waist, and was pushed to the back.

"Two, what are you doing here?" He asked switching as well to Draconic, and ignoring his father. Even though he had similar questions.

"Lady Nod'ka sent me to come and ensure that you are comfortable in this human domicile until you return to Jade." Two answered while he took a seat at the table, immediately she took a seat close to, but a respectable distance from him. "I am sorry Sire, I have not been able to communicate my duties to the humans living here, as I am not fluent in their language, and Lady Nod'ka did not see fit to cast a translation spell upon me."

"_Spell of True Hearing_." He cast the appropriate spell.

"Young Sire is most gracious."

"Uh huh, now go tell Kasumi what you're here for, and then get me some tea."

"Right away Sire." Bowing, Two headed off to do the assigned task.

"Boy." Genma drew his attention.

"Mom sent her to take care of the house." He answered.

"Who is she son?" Soun asked, using an annoying and overly familiar name for him.

"A wyrm." He answered simply.

"A－ wyrm?" Soun asked slowly.

"Pop, you mind explaining for him?" Ranma asked, finding that Two had returned with his tea.

"Tendo, a wyrm is a dragon who was born without magic, they look like a big snake." Genma explained. "She's a servant."

"Sire, why is it that you allowed that human to call you son?" Two asked, giving a dark glare at Soun.

"I think it's more of just him being friendly." He guessed. "Don't get too worked up over it."

"Yes Sire."

"I'm home!" Akane's voice echoed through the home.

(There are more?) Two asked, speaking too low for the human inhabitants to hear.

(Four humans live here, and you can ignore them all, but no physical attacks if insulted.) He answered, if Two knew magic he wouldn't have added that limitation. But a four meter long wyrm attacking a human would kill them, and Two was kind of high strung as it was. Obviously since his mother had decided to let the humans stay, she had some kind of interest in them being alive. Two nodded her head in agreement.

"There you are." Akane turned the corner and entered the room, her gaze falling on him. "You didn't stay behind to help clean again."

"You're kidding right?" He took another sip of tea. "Good job Two, this is really good."

"Thank you Sire." The wyrmling replied happily.

"Who's she?" Akane switched targets.

"Two, this is Akane, Akane this is Two." Ranma introduced.

"Thank you very much for seeing fit to introduce me Sire."

"Two? You mean like the English number?" Akane asked, giving Two an annoyed look.

"Yes, she's one of the five wyrm's and drakes who serve my family." He explained.

"Serve? You mean like servants?" Akane took a seat at the side of the table to his right, putting her across from Two. When she reached to pour herself a glass of tea, Two's hand snapped out and took the kettle away.

"How dare you touch Sire's tea with your grubby human hands!" Two snapped, and Akane blinked repeatedly, unsure how to act.

"Two." Ranma said harshly, knowing that the wyrm had never really been around humans outside of Genma before. She was going to cause a lot of problems if she went around like she was.

"But Sire, I retrieved this beverage for you. Not this human." Two spat.

"Practice being humble." He informed the wyrm.

"She's even more arrogant than you are Ranma." Akane joked.

"Ya know Akane, probably the only reason you aren't dead right now is because I told her no physical attacks." Ranma gave Two a cross look. He had never had to worry about the wyrms or drakes getting out of line when he was little, and he couldn't risk having Two start tearing up the populace at every slight. His mother would probably hold him responsible. Which suddenly seemed to be the true reason for the wyrm's presence. Nod'ka was testing him to see if he was being an adult or not.

Deciding to adjust his orders to avoid any unneeded attention he added. "Two, no attacking any humans unless they attack you, and you have to be nice to everyone." The wyrmlings face was a look of horror before she reluctantly slid the kettle over to Akane.

"Is she a dragon too?" Akane asked, pouring herself a glass slowly.

"No." He said a bit loudly. "No, she's just a wyrm." Ranma explained. "Still above a human though." He complimented Two, who lost some of her depressed look. There was a certain satisfaction in appearing humble to humanoids, but he took another satisfaction in putting Two in her place as the slave she was.

"What's a wyrm?" Akane asked.

"Think a big snake." He really didn't think the house could support Two's weight, if she changed into her true form.

"So who's this?" Nabiki finally returned to the home.

"Ugh." Ranma groaned.

X x x x x x

Kasumi pursed her lips as she looked at the newest house guest, or if what had happened with Ranma's mother was true, then the newest resident while she was a guest. But this new girl, or woman was more appropriate considering her apparent age, was intruding upon her territory. Slowly drying some dishes, she turned to look at Two, who was cleaning the floor to a mirror shine.

Two had said with complete finality that she would take up all the duties of cleaning, as well as cooking. Kasumi did not like this announcement one bit. She enjoyed her free time as much as anyone, but she enjoyed cooking and even cleaning to an extent. To have someone arrive and take her job away was just insulting. What could she do though? A man had come earlier in the day to appraise their home, with another coming just before school was out to have her father sign another paper to accept payment. So it was technically now Ranma's home more than her own, even though she and her sisters would be able to live here free of charge for the rest of their lives.

With nothing better to do, she decided to try and get to know the newcomer. "Two." She said sweetly, gaining the woman's attention. "How did come to work for Nod'ka."

"I do not－ work, for Lady Nod'ka." The golden haired woman answered. "She is a dragon and I am her wyrm slave."

"A slave?" She asked hoping for some clarification, earning a serious look from the woman.

"I suppose you wouldn't know. Wyrms do not have any rights, along with drakes we are slaves to true dragons."

"Oh my, what is the reason for that?" She was shocked by the idea.

"We are but lowly creatures undeserving of rights, children, or even names." Two answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"That sounds very harsh."

"We're defects, unable to do magic, I'm eternally grateful for Lady Nod'ka and Lord Ra'ma's kind treatment. I know that not all dragons are as wonderful as they are. I do not expect a human such as yourself to understand the intricacies of dragons."

"Oh my." She whispered.

"Are you done with drying those dishes yet?" Two stood up from the floor.

"I will be in a minute."

"If I am needed, I will be cleaning your bathing area." Without another word, Two exited the kitchen.

X x x x x x

"You like having her around, don't you?" Nabiki turned the television to another channel. The new house guest wasn't even the room, having excused herself to wait for orders in the kitchen. Ranma was stretched out on his side next to the table in dragon form, while lazily watching the television. "Even though you treat her like dirt."

"She's a wyrm." He answered, hitting the floor once with his tail. "She's lucky I'm letting her sleep inside."

"And you don't think that's treating her like dirt?" Ever since the woman had shown up after school yesterday, all Ranma had done was boss her around. Two wasn't even allowed in the room when he was eating.

"Oh you oh so ignorant human."

"Ignorant, that's a big word isn't it?" She teased, finding great amusement in the fact that Ranma should be in elementary school.

"You'll understand sometime." Ranma raised his head to smirk at her.

"What? You're actually going to explain the great and glorious dragon culture to me?" Snickering, she looked back at the television.

"I had something else in mind." He answered cryptically.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, turning to look at Ranma, and seeing only the tip of his tail as he left the room. 'Dragons have some weird mental processes.' She thought, dismissing the boy.

X x x x x x

Finishing up with the third and final spell ring of a Jusenkyo curse, Ranma took a minute to recover from the effort. Nabiki was sitting with her legs hanging off the side of the raised hallway, through the large open doorway in the side of the house. He had gotten her to wait patiently with the promise that Nod'ka had told him to give her a present. Two was in her true form, just over seven meters long, and shaped like a giant golden snake with a pointed snout. She was curled around the pond, ready for any instruction.

"Alright Two, put some of yourself in the water." He instructed in Draconic, having to keep the spell from locking on to the fish currently in the water. Two lowered the tip of her tail into the water, and Ranma drew up the necessary ether. Three gold rings formed around his right hand, and he pushed it towards the water, which glowed white for a moment. Now that the imprint spell was in place, he could test to see if they combined properly.

"Good, now don't touch the water again." Taking a step back, he had no desire to see if the curses mixed, especially not if it made him part wyrm.

"So now that I've seen you cast a few sparkly spells, can I get what you were talking about?" Nabiki asked.

"Two, would you mind throwing Nabiki in the pond?" He asked, switching to Japanese.

"Of course Sire." Two answered happily, having disliked Nabiki from the start.

"Wait what?" Nabiki nervously took a step back but was stopped when Two rocketed across the short distance, and wrapped the human up with her tail. With a flick of the wyrm's tail, Nabiki was sent flying directly into the pond. A second later, the water exploded, sending up a fine mist of water to blanket the area. Which thankfully was now harmless water, what with the curse magic being used up without anything to continue powering it.

Ranma shielded himself from the mist with a spell, nearly depleting the last of his ether with the simple magic. Blinking several times, he looked at the now changed Nabiki, her form partially in the remaining water, and partially hanging over the rocks around the edge.

"Maybe I should have thought this out a bit more." He nodded to himself. Nabiki hadn't become a full grown wyrm like Two. Which meant she was now about six meters long, and weighed in around eight metric tons.

"Wha- what happened to me?" Nabiki questioned, clumsily raising her head up off the ground to take in her new form. Like Two, she was a gold wyrm, and had a pattern of snake like brown spots running along her back. "Why am I seeing－ weird colored things."

"Congratulations Nabiki, you've moved up the food chain just a bit." Ranma exclaimed, happy over now knowing that he could create Jusenkyo curses so long as he had a template to work off of. "Actually, you're rather lucky, since you never have to return to being a human, so long as you stay away from hot water that is."

"You－ cursed me?" Nabiki's pointed head swung to face him, her eyes already glowing a soft red, became two bright angry rubies. "You bastard!"

"I think I'll call you Six when you're like that." He mused. "Wyrms can't really have names." Nabiki's angry hiss was her answer to that, and she snapped forward in an uncoordinated attempt to grab him with her jaws. Just as her four fangs were about to pierce into his flesh, Two slammed into Nabiki, pinning the new wyrm to the ground, her own fangs digging deep into the former human's side.

"Thank you Two." Ranma had panicked for a brief instant, Nabiki seemed to have gained a large amount of speed, and likely strength from the transformation. Watching Nabiki cry out in pain, and struggle against the naturally born wyrm, he felt slightly bad for her current predicament. Turned into a lowly wyrm, it was as bad as becoming a human.

"Nabiki, if you quit trying to attack me, I'll show you how to change forms." He bargained with the new wyrm, who's weak struggles turned into pained whimpers, and her long body made weak attempts to move, or at least alleviate the pain.

"O- okay." Nabiki agreed, tears falling from her eyes, and Two released her to slither over, and wrap protectively around him.

"Sire allow me." Two offered.

"Sure." He shrugged. "Watch Two, Nabiki." Two's change to human took only an instant, and Nabiki's eyes widened, before a look of intense concentration crossed over her face. A moment later, she had resumed a human form, only now her hair was a golden color.

"That was magic." The now human shaped Nabiki said in awe. "I just used a magic spell, and I have hands! Oh hands! What would I ever do without you?" She cried happily, hugging her currently nude self.

Crouching down in front of Nabiki, Ranma studied the curse as it took a moment to establish its link to her aura. Unlike his, and Genma's, the curse seemed to be having trouble, looking like it would fall apart. All the magic he had spent to create it was threatening to vanish like it never existed. "Stay away from hot water until I say so." He told the new wyrm, who instantly looked up at him with anger in her eyes.

"No way, I'm changing back right now!" She quickly ran past him into the house, knocking him over on the way.

"Two stop her!" He told the wyrm, who had already been after Nabiki for touching him, and dashing after the girl himself.

Neither of them were able to reach Nabiki before she had turned on the hot water faucet in the bathroom, and splashed herself. "My spell!" He bemoaned dramatically, seeing the magic completely vanish.

"Ha servers you right!" Nabiki laughed to herself. "Think you can curse me, why does my voice sound so funny?" The middle Tendo sister finally bothered to look down at herself, and found that she was now just a little older than Ranma was, perhaps about eleven in human years. "You turned me into a loli!" She screeched.

"How dare you touch Sire!" Two snarled, smashing Nabiki face first into the tiled floor.

"She still a wyrm." Ranma got over his disappointment enough to notice that her aura had remained a wyrm, even though she should have been a human. Which was a good thing for Nabiki because Two would probably have killed her. "Two." He called the wyrm off.

"I'll get you for this!" Nabiki yelled, suddenly jumping up without injury, and running towards him.

"I'm sure you will." He replied haughtily just before Nabiki started hitting him. "Ouch! Hey! Ack! Two!" Trying to grab Nabiki by the wrists, he found that she was far stronger than he was, and she easily broke his hold before Two picked the girl up by the back of the neck. Nabiki continued to flail around ineffectually, being unable to free herself from Two's grasp.

"That's not fair at all." Ranma pouted. "Not only did my magic fall apart, but she's stronger than me." Not for the first time he cursed his human heritage.

Nabiki realized this a second after he said it, and a malicious smile spread across her face. "Make me a human again." She demanded.

"Or else what?" He regained as much dignity as he could. "If you think to hit me again, I'll just have Two return the favor." At his answer, Nabiki had another realization of just what the other wyrm could do to her. "Now I'm sure we'll need a suitable cover story, say you being greedy, and wanting the obvious advantages that dragons have over humans. Seeing as I would never consider making you one of us, I turned you into a wyrm."

"I'd never agree to something like that." Nabiki protested.

"You did." He corrected. "And it's in your best interest to say you belong to me. There aren't many dragons in the Earth realm, but you probably wouldn't want to know how the average wyrm is treated. If I decide to turn you back into a human, it won't be for a while, even I have to store of the ether required for the spell. So just sit tight and enjoy being less crippled than you were. Agreed?"

"What other choice do I have?" Nabiki glowered.

"You can let her go Two." In response to his command, the elder wyrm dropped the new to land awkwardly on her backside. "Well this has been a productive day." He clapped his hands and strolled casually out of the furo. "Two, I'm hungry, why don't you make me a sandwich."

"Right away Sire."

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

None actually.


	3. Heart of the Matter

"Speech"

'Thought'

(Low speak)

#Panda sign#

X x x x x x

"Hey Saito, I seem to remember that you owe me some money." Nabiki picked at some imaginary dirt underneath her fingernails. Three days she had been trapped as a wyrm now, three days of being turned into a ten year old child, and she had found that the change in form carried several perks.

For one she was far stronger than a normal human now. While not up to her gorilla of a younger sister's strength, she had been accidentally breaking things enough to know that she could crush bones if she tried. A fact she had quickly impressed upon the few people who had neglected to pay her the money she so richly deserved.

"Whatever Nabiki, like I'm going to pay you an extra five thousand yen just cause you want to add some weird interest." Saito, an average guy who she had found pleasing to the eye before, but now she simply couldn't see how she had. Seeing a person's aura really did change how you viewed a the world, she was seeing his soul. Of course she had no clue what the various colors actually meant, but there were obvious differences from person to person. Or it could just be that ten year olds generally don't look at guys like that.

"You heard what happened to Suzuoki right?" She threatened, having broken several fingers of the boy who had decided to poke her on the nose.

"I told you I'm not going to pay you." Saito continued to walk away from school, and she quickly took a hop forward, and poked him hard in the stomach with a single finger. Instantly he doubled over in pain, collapsing into a heap on the ground.

"Now what kind of punishment would be worth your debt?" She mused, taking particular pleasure in the way Saito seemed to realize just how strong she had become.

"There you are." An unwelcome voice declared just before she was lifted off the ground by Two grabbing the back of her school uniform. "Sire said you could go to school for some reason only a dragon can understand, but you know full well that he expects you to return immediately, not play with humans."

"Let me go you idiot!" She flailed her arms and legs in a futile attempt to get Two to release her. "I don't have to follow any orders from that jackass!"

"I see that I'll need to go over your responsibilities and restrictions again." Two ignored her completely and started to walk with her dangling from an outstretched hand. Fuming but unable to change her position without turning into her wyrm form, which she hated with a passion, Nabiki just crossed her arms, and glared at any passerby who dared looked at her.

X x x x x x

Yawning, Ranma rolled on to his back, and kicked his legs into the air several times before fully rolling over to the other side. Laying next to the shogi board outside the living room, Genma was on the opposite side, and it was his turn to make a move.

"Check boy."

Getting up into a sitting position, Ranma surveyed the board, and his father's aura at the same time. It frustrated him to no end how his father, a lowly human, could beat him repeatedly at such a deceptively simple game. Picking up a piece in his claws, he moved it to take the piece that his father had just moved. Before he could lay back down, Genma made another move.

"I win again boy."

"What!" He all be screamed, glaring at the board.

"You lasted ten minutes this game, at this rate you'll be a shogi champion in a few centuries." Genma joked.

Storming off to go get something to snack on, he purposely knocked the board with his tail as he passed, jostling all the pieces out of position. 'Stupid humanoid games, there should be a dragon character who would just eat all the others!' He was stopped from entering the kitchen by a familiar tickle running across his senses in the wake of a massive burst of ether directly in front of the outside gate. The doorbell rang once, but he was frozen in place, when it rang a second time Kasumi passed by him to answer it.

Mechanically he moved to the corner of the hallway that lead to the right and the entrance, he peaked his head around the corner. Kasumi was just greeting a woman just over 160 centimeters tall, in a silver business suit without a blouse beneath her jacket. The bangs of the woman's dark blue hair fell in to locks on either side of her face, with the back fanning out behind her head.

"Hello, I am agent Debra with Agency Zero." Debra greeted Kasumi, her voice being translated by a spell. "I'm looking for the new owner of the home, Nod'ka, her son Ra'ma, or husband Saotome Genma." Making a small whimpering noise, Ranma pulled his head back around the wall, knowing that it would be of little use to hide him from Debra's sight.

"Please come in, Ranma and Genma are both here."

'Oh no you won't.' Ranma spun around and took off down the hall as quickly as he could. He knew that Debra worked for Agency Zero, a police force for super criminals on Earth, and he didn't want to find out why she'd be tracking him or his mother down. Hitting the shogi board again as he ducked out the doorway and into the yard, he came to a sudden halt after striking a pair of legs. Backing up and shaking his head, he looked up to find Debra had beat him around the home.

"Tut tut tut, it's not nice to run away when family is at the door. That and it looks really suspicious." She waved a finger disapprovingly in his direction. "If you did something wrong you should always act casually, and never tip your hand."

"Um－ hi Auntie." He laughed nervously. "What brings you here?"

"It's Agency policy to investigate purchases of Jade based individuals on Earth realm. Naturally me and my partner were assigned to the mission."

"Partner?" Ranma wondered, being too focused on Debra to notice any other dragon.

"These Japanese homes are even smaller than American ones!" A deep female voice grumbled as an extremely tall and well built dark skinned woman followed Kasumi into the living room. She was wearing a gray business jacket but with a skirt barely past her crotch, and everything was small enough that it molded to her body.

"You work with that monster?" He gaped, the human was almost 250 centimeters tall! Sure there were races of humanoids that got that tall normally, but this was a pure human.

"I'm not a monster you little twerp!" The huge woman literally broke through the door and ceiling on her way out to squash him to the ground with a giant hand against his back between his wings.

"Xane." Debra warned. "That's my cousin you're picking on."

"Really?" Xane asked stupidly, lifting him up underneath his forearms. "This little runt?" Narrowing his eyes, his developing ether vents lit up, and he blasted her in the face.

"Ha ha ha! Who's a runt now you－ you－." Ranma gulped, realizing that the woman's hands hadn't faltered in the slightest, and when the small cloud of smoke generated by the explosion cleared, he could see that he had only messed up her hair and makeup.

"Why you little!" Xane started to shake him violently.

"Yea do it some more! Get the jerk!" Nabiki called from the destroyed entrance into the home.

"Xane." Debra warned, this time with more force.

"Fine." Xane released him to fall clumsily to the grass. Wavering side to side, he slowly laid himself down to let the world stop spinning.

"Two wyrms?" Debra asked. "Your mother only reported sending one."

"I'm not a wyrm." Nabiki protested, Ranma noticed that the new wyrm was being held in place by Two. "That bastard cursed me to be one, I'm human."

"Well that explains why you were trying to run." Debra sighed, reaching down to grab the corner of his head crest between two fingers. "You have some explaining to do young man."

X x x x x x

"I have to admit, it's impressive that you were able to cast such a spell Ranma." Debra admitted after hearing the full story. Any dragon could see that Ranma and his human father were afflicted by shape change magic. A strange sort of spell that she was having trouble understanding, which in and of itself was incredibly interesting. The fact that it reminded her of Array, or her true name Summoner, immediately drew her complete attention. "Where did you say you picked up your curse?"

"Jusenkyo, in China." Ranma answered.

"Hey, can you change me back?" The adolescent wyrm asked and Debra was once again taken back that she was being talked to by a wyrm. Then again, she wasn't really a wyrm, so she could endure it.

"I'm thinking." She answered the girl. At the very least she had to investigate Jusenkyo. Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed the line to Headquarters. "Agent M, this is Star Platinum, something has come up and I'm going to need to head to China in order to check it out. Would you mind recalling Xane with the teleporter?"

"Debbie, what's going on?" Xane asked, hovering nearby.

"I need to take him with me to China." She pointed at Ranma.

"I should be going." Genma demanded.

"Can you breath in the upper atmosphere?" She asked, never having no problem with Genma per se, but it was simply easier not having to take into account the limitations of the human body. Pushing through air pockets at high speed was annoying.

"Probably not." Genma took a moment to think on it.

"There's no way you're getting him cured and leaving me here with her!" Nabiki pointed a finger at Two. "And I have a name you stupid wyrm, Nabiki, Na bi ki! Not Six."

"Enough!" She raised her hands and drew everyone's attention. "You can come." She pointed at Nabiki, figuring that the girl would survive long enough. "You're coming and when we're done I'll be calling your mother to tell her the trouble you've been causing."

"Oh come on!" Ranma exclaimed and she silenced him with a glare.

"We should probably get going." She excused herself from the humans who inhabited her relative's new home before grabbing one of Ranma's wings. "Keep that attitude up and I'll make you fly there yourself." Motioning towards the small wyrm girl, she took both of them out into the street.

"If we're going to China, shouldn't I pack something?" Nabiki asked.

"I really didn't mean to give her a wyrm's intelligence." Ranma apologized.

"Attitude." She warned and after checking to make sure she wouldn't destroy anything, she changed into her true form. Carefully adjusting her position, she tried not to crush anything, being over nine meters tall at her shoulder, and twice that in length made the task difficult in the small street outside the gate. Finally in a position where she wasn't putting bystanders at risk, she began charging up the ether sails on her back. The sails were located along her back, two that had replaced her wings, and one above the base of her tail.

Debra took a moment to preen mentally over the gaping humans who had followed her out of the home. Even to dragons she was impressive, larger and stronger than any other platinum dragon, and then there was her regal presence. Something her mother had always displayed even in the most dire of circumstances.

"Let's go." She held out her right hand for the two children to ride on. Right away Ranma hopped on without hesitation, the wyrm cursed girl simply stood staring at her like she couldn't possibly be real.

X x x x x x

Nabiki stared at the enormous hand that Ranma had jumped on to, unable to grasp just how big a fully grown dragon was. She had assumed that Two was close to what a dragon's final size was. But Debra was easily that height tall. A fully grown wyrm was a decent meal for a dragon. Gulping, she also realized that Nod'ka would also be around Debra's size or bigger, and that meant she had been trying to con someone who could use her for a toothpick.

"If you want to remain a wyrm that's fine." Debra started to pull her hand up into the air. Scrambling to climb on to the hand, the horror of being a giant snake for the rest of her life kicked in. The clawed fingers of Debra's hand closed around them slightly, and she found herself grabbing one of them like her life depended on it.

With a vicious rush of air, Nabiki was flattened into the palm of Debra's hand along with Ranma. A moment later the force abated and she was able to sit up and look through the fingers to see the ground kilometers below. Wrapping her hands and legs around one of Debra's fingers again, she watched the ground continue to fall away, and the air get thinner as they climbed above the clouds.

'Oh crap, please don't fall, please don't fall.' She prayed, remembering that Debra didn't really have wings, which suddenly seemed very odd to her, since they were obviously flying.

"Hey Auntie go faster!" Ranma called to the other dragon.

"You idiot, don't tell her that!" She released her hold and hit Ranma over the head.

"Children." Debra warned.

"If I fall and die I'm totally going to haunt you for eternity." She glared at the dragon in front of her and sat down with a huff.

"You really must have a wyrm brain. Even a wyrm could survive almost any fall."

"Yea right, we're way too high up for that."

"Idiot, you can only fall so fast, it doesn't really matter how high you are."

Nabiki blinked several times, remembering physics class and the equations they required about gravity. Terminal velocity being the maximum speed gravity could induce in an object due to wind resistance. So it really didn't matter that they were flying where the air was thin. 'Very thin.' She noted, having some trouble breathing.

"Then again you'd probably stick to your human disguise and go splat." Ranma interrupted her thoughts.

"If it wasn't for you I would still be human." She spat, glaring at him.

"Why are you still angry about that? Seriously, you'll like being my slave."

"Why would I be happy to be your slave?"

"I dunno, I'm a dragon, I don't think about stuff like that."

"Idiot." She rubbed at her temples.

"Ranma, where is this magical area?" Debra asked, her voice carrying over the roar of wind somehow.

"You can't feel it?" The dragon boy asked.

"No, there's smaller locations of magic but nothing like you described."

"It's over in that direction." Ranma pointed to the left and Debra titled to the left altering her flight. "You seriously can't feel it?"

"Not even a void." Debra answered, their speed slowing, and descending till they were below the few wisps of clouds. "How far?"

"Right there, to the right of that tall mountain." Ranma answered.

Nabiki peered through Debra's fingers and watched the landscape scream by at high speeds. Suddenly Debra angled downwards to the ground, directly at a valley filled with various springs that she recognized as Jusenkyo from when Ranma had shown off how he and Genma had been cursed.

"Ahh we're going to crash!" She cried out, clutching on to Ranma, who would be no help in the event that the did, and squeezing her eyes tight. Everything suddenly came to an abrupt halt, and she slowly opened her eyes to see that they were safely on the ground, Debra in human form was standing nearby, already scanning the area with her eyes glowing a soft green.

"You can let him go now." Debra told her and she looked down to see that she was squeezing Ranma's neck, and cutting off his air.

"I don't really want to." She squeezed a bit more.

"It wasn't a request."

"Fine." She released Ranma, who gasped for air, and quickly scrambled over to hide behind Debra's legs.

"Strange, now that I'm here I can't help but notice the ether surrounding the area. Some kind of passive presence mask, but it doesn't disrupt the trails." Debra thought out loud. "Didn't you notice it the first time you came here?"

"I wasn't looking." Ranma answered. "And passive ether is hard to spot."

"Very true." Debra agreed, pointing a finger at the tall mountain the south. "Seems like that is the center of the presence mask, let's start there."

X x x x x x

"Who puts a door into the side of a mountain?" Ranma in human form, asked rhetorically, cocking his head to the side while looking at ornate golden arch that opened up into a long set of steps. On the very top of the arch was a stylized bird with red plumage.

"Guess it's for the people that live here." Debra added, looking up to the top of the sheer face of the mountain. "Perhaps they'll have some answers."

"Does that mean we get to terrorize some humans?" He asked excitedly, having been told some tales before bedtime by his mother about how dragons used to do as they pleased, and didn't have to abide by the humanoid laws.

His favorite had been the one about the dragon who had taken up residence outside of a human village in Europe. Being the fearful ignorant peasants that they were, they didn't see the presence of such a magnificent creature as a boon to their village. When they sent warriors to slay the dragon, they were all killed. For the inconvenience of vaporizing such weak warriors, the dragon demanded a weekly payment in cattle. When the humans refused, the dragon simply destroyed the village, and took everything.

"No, we are most certainly not." Debra tugged on his ear. "Who filled your head with that nonsense?"

"No- nobody." He winced, also remembering some stories from the other dragons he had met before coming to Earth realm. Their parents told some stories that were a bit more colorful.

"Well whoever, it is not alright to just go terrorizing humans whenever you want." Debra gave one last painful tug before releasing him. "I am definitely going to have to have a long talk with your mother."

X x x x x x

"Auntie, are humans supposed to have wings?"

"No." Debra answered her relative, intrigued by the strange, and armed figures that greeted them at the top of the long staircase. Every species has a specific look to their ethereal aura. These winged humans, featuring scaly clawed hands and feet, looked for all purposes to be human.

"We the Phoenix tribe greet you." A female with white hair and armor announced. "But we do not welcome you into our home lightly. What is your business here landlings?" Ranma's sarcastic laugh before she could answer probably wasn't the best response.

"I'm investigating the magical phenomenon in the valley here. I know this mountain is the source of the water for all the springs, but you have extra spells in place that originate here." She answered as politely as she could, instantly the three winged humans were on their guard.

"How do you know this?" The female demanded.

"Are you the ones responsible for the spell blanketing this area?" She asked, unwilling to divulge her species without need. If these humans were the ones keeping such a spell in place, then they would be unlikely to give out information freely.

"How interesting." An elderly male voice announced the presence of a short bent over man, who looked like he was part pheasant. "Please ignore our Captain's rudeness. It's not often that a dragon visits."

"Are you the one in charge?" Debra asked.

"No, Lord Saffron is, but he's unavailable. I am Sambar." The pheasant man bowed politely. "Please, follow me."

Following the old man with the two children in tow, the hallway was a circle, with round access points like the door at the base of the steps out to the side of the mountain designed to minimize the wind coming in. There were some rooms inside, but for the most part the hallway remained without anything to mar the intricate design work on the walls.

"If I had known you were coming I would have informed the guards to let you in." The old man explained.

"Do you have many dragon visitors?" She wondered.

"No－ not many, just one really."

"And what is their name?"

"He has never told us his name. But he is the only one able to navigate the labyrinth of traps that are underneath our mountain." Exiting through an access point, they followed stairs up and around the outside of the mountain, before entering into another entryway near the top. Inside there was a small platform that suddenly dropped downwards into an endlessly dropping pit, that looking up proved to be open to the sky. "No wind will enter this place, and any who have went down, have never returned."

"Then how do you know what's down there?" Ranma asked.

"We don't know for sure, but we have been warned that while he would cause us no harm, the traps he had setup to guard his lair were deadly and numerous."

"Thanks for the info." Stepping over the edge, she changed into her real form, and swung around to hover in front of the children. Ranma had also assumed his true form and was peering over the side, preparing to jump off. "No flying for you Ranma, I don't know what traps might be waiting."

"Aww." Ranma whined but hopped into her waiting hand.

"I uh－ think I'll wait here." Nabiki backed away from the edge.

(You would rather remain here with a large group of strange humans who have been far too friendly?) She low speaked to the girl, who glanced at the old man quickly before hopping into her hand. "Thanks again." She told the elderly man before cutting off the ether supply to her wings and dropped down into the darkness.

Casting a simple light spell, she powered up her ether sails to slow her descent. The pit was large enough that she couldn't touch the sides. Whoever was living here was a large dragon, not a Platinum like her or Ranma, but one with actual wings. A Gold perhaps, and a very big one at that.

Reaching the bottom, she scanned the floor as thoroughly as she could before allowing any part of her body to touch. Since she could find nothing, she came to a rest, and let the children off in order to return to her human disguise. She put a hand on both of her young charges shoulders to stop them from moving around.

Debra had picked up the subtle hint of passive ether lining the walkway that left the main platform, and headed down at a comfortable angle. The hall was big enough for her to proceed in dragon form, but not big enough that she would be able to move freely. This lair was designed to kill the stupid, while allowing the smart to pass easily by. Any human unable to see the ether traps would be killed within a few steps.

"Hmm, where is it." She wondered, walking around the platform.

"Where's what?" Nabiki asked, watching her curiously.

"Ranma please explain to her." She told her nephew busy with her task.

"Auntie is looking for the doorbell."

"Since when do dragon lairs have doorbells?" The girl asked.

"Since before humans walked upright." Ranma answered haughtily.

"Got it." Tapping a small piece of unappealing stone, a faint chime echoed throughout the great cavern. Waiting in silence for a minute, she was almost ready to leave when the sound of scales rasping against rock reached her ears. The visible traps quickly deactivated before the rock behind them started to slide away from them. Ancient, magically powered mechanisms pulled the square block, opening up a space that she could easily have fit through in dragon form.

"And now we have our invitation." She announced, the slab of rock had receded nearly a dozen meters, and split in half vertically before pulling into the walls, allowing them free passage into another hall.

X x x x x x

Ranma followed after his Aunt, letting her check for any last minute traps, with Nabiki following behind him as they moved through the hall. Whoever lived here didn't seem to be a typical dragon. Everything was simple, understated, and modest. A lair was an indicator of the wealth and general status of a dragon. Crude, poorly designed and defended lairs were obviously those of a young and inexperienced dragon. This dragon presented no outward signs of wealth, but his lair was immaculate, with the refined touch of eons of careful creation.

He saw the lower body before the hallway opened up into a cavern over fifty meters tall. Rising up like a giant cobra was the largest being Ranma had ever seen. Six softly glowing blue eyes stared down at them as they entered. The head itself hovering nearly at the ceiling, with the body trailing down and around like a coiled snake. The serpents underbelly was a pale blue to the point of silver, while it's back was a powder blue.

"Grandfather what are you doing here?" Debra asked without much respect.

"Gr-Grandfather Exthilion." He stuttered, barely able to comprehend who he was meeting. The Great Serpent, the original dragon, keeper of Merlin's Enigmas, the most powerful being in existence.

"Grandfather?" Nabiki asked stupidly. "How many freaking relatives do you have?"

"Being that this is my home D'bra, I should be the one asking that question." Exthilion replied slowly, his voice carrying the weight of his great age. "And how, as this area is enchanted so that no dragon can find their way here."

"How about half dragons?" Debra glanced at him, which he barely noticed, still staring up into the eyes of Exthilion.

"Half what?" Exthilion asked, lowering his head half way and peering directly at Ranma. Being no bigger than one of Exthilion's eyes, Ranma backed away slightly at the scrutiny.

"Human." Debra supplied.

"I see, such a union was so unlikely at the time of creating my home, that I did not think to provide defense from humans."

"I- I'm a dragon." He tried to correct his forefather as politely as he could.

"Indeed you are." Exthilion's expression softened momentarily. "But why are you out here in this remote area of Earth realm?" (1)

"Well Ranma, explain." Debra smiled with amusement at his awe.

"Er, that is- I was cursed by Jusenkyo to become human." He started to explain.

"What is this Jusenkyo?" Exthilion interrupted him.

"The uh valley below here has a－ bunch of pools. If you fall in, you become whatever drowned there." He explained.

"Your lair appears to be the origin of this magic." Debra supplemented.

"Most perplexing." Exthilion's eyes glowed briefly and in a small flash of white light a humanoid figure appeared before his head. Ranma blinked his eyes several times, trying to process the information he was being told about the humanoid. He couldn't quite look at the form, his eyes simply slipping over it. There was a protection spell in place that blocked even a dragons sight, he realized a moment later.

Exthilion seemed to be talking to the humanoid through telepathy before he spoke. "It appears that the boon I granted the people living above my home has spread to this valley. The waters above feed the pools below, causing a temporary transformative effect."

"Can you cure me?" Ranma tempted his fate to ask, wondering what he would have to give in return, and what could he possibly give.

"It would be a simple matter." Exthilion answered.

"What about me?" Nabiki suddenly demanded. "He!" She hissed and pointed at him with a finger. "Used his wyrm slave to turn me into one with that Jusenkyo stuff!"

"There is a lingering amount of magic upon you." Exthilion titled his great head to the side. "How did you do this?"

"Er, I just combined the three spell circles and it worked." He answered truthfully.

"You would be wise in the future child, not to play with magic you do not understand."

"Yes Grandfather." He nodded rapidly.

"What is your role in this D'bra?"

"Part of my job with Agency Zero, little bit of curiosity, and he is my cousin." Debra answered.

"I will remove the enchantment as well as return you to your true form, in reward for D'bra's generosity. But know this, you can never return here, and I never want to learn that you have used the spell circle again." Exthilion dictated.

"That's fine." Ranma answered, a cure for becoming human was worth losing even such a powerful spell.

Exthilion closed his six eyes, while the humanoid spun slowly to face them. In a brief flash of orange light, Ranma had to shut his eyes tight when they were suddenly transported outside into bright sunlight. "What happened?" He asked, shaking his head. Some kind of light spell had stopped him from seeing what was cast.

"An ejection spell." Debra supplied.

"Something isn't quite right." Nabiki drew their attention.

X x x x x x

Nabiki looked back and forth between her two traveling companions, she knew magic now. Every pro and con to the _disguise _spell Debra was using to appear human. Every spell that she had seen since becoming a wyrm, suddenly made perfect sense. She could cast them if she wanted, how to do them didn't appear, only that she could. (2)

Looking down at her silver fore legs, she shifted uneasily, standing comfortably on all fours, with a tail shifting automatically to balance her body. Two dark purple wings were folded against her back, and she experimentally spread them to confirm that they were part of her body. Flapping them once, she felt a small amount of ether be expended, instantly knowing that flight wasn't powered purely by physical muscle, but was augmented by magic. She was about the same size as Ranma now, and with how her coloring had shifted, she now much be a platinum dragon.

"It looks like Grandfather misinterpreted your request." Debra noted.

"Ya think?" She snapped before finding Ranma's dragon face right up against her own.

"What do you have to be angry for?" Ranma demanded. "Grandfather himself gave you the gift of being a dragon, and you act like he made you a human?"

"Enough Ranma." Debra forcibly stepped between both of them, though Nabiki could still see Ranma glaring angrily at her from between the woman's legs. "We'll return to your home, and I'll try and get into contact with Grandfather to fix this."

"Why can't we just go back? We know the way?" She asked.

"The reason we were ejected, was that he didn't want us to find our way back. Thankfully we don't have to worry about you dying before he can be contacted."

"Wha- what is that supposed to mean?" She asked nervously.

"Grandfather sometimes goes centuries without being in contact." Debra explained and Nabiki's face fell.

"I'll be dead by then!" She protested.

"You'll be fine, you won't even be in your teens yet." Debra said with all seriousness.

"Herb Herb Herb! Is this a woman?" A male voice asked excitedly in Chinese, Nabiki without a thought used a spell to translate their speech, immediately after the question two boys ran up to stare at Debra. One was very tall, wearing clothes with a tiger motif. The other was much shorter, with a wolf themed outfit. Nabiki immediately noticed with her new eyes, that these boys had a strange double ethereal body. A melding of their human forms, and the animals their clothing was based off of.

"Get away from her you idiots." A third boy quickly grabbed the two and threw them away from Debra with incredible force. "I cannot apologize enough for their actions. While my sight is limited, I can see clearly that you three are dragons." This new boy bowed deeply to Debra, and then both her, and Ranma. As with the first two, this one had a strange ethereal body, but this time it was a wyrm.

His clothing was far more ornate, with large shoulder pads of bronze scales, his tunic was pure white, with red and baby blue accents. He also possessed an impossible hair color, a short blue stripe in the front running backwards, bangs of white on the side of that, and a long ponytail tying back the rest of his pink hair. His eyes were a startling shade of red, with reptilian slits instead of round pupils.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty." Herb introduced himself excitedly. "Please, tell me your names so that I might know more of my kind."

"Your kind?" Ranma asked, clearly offended by the notion, immediately Debra dropped her voice down to low speak.

(Diplomacy Ranma, even if he is a wyrm, he's still dragonkin.) Coughing lightly into her hand, Debra addressed Herb. "My name is Debra, this is my cousin Ranma, and a－ family friend, Nabiki."

"I am honored to meet you. If I may, there are so many questions that I have. Oh but where I my manners, please, if you would return with me to my home, I'll have food prepared, and the best lodgings that can be provided."

"I'm sorry－ Herb." Debra stopped the boy before he could say anymore. "I work with a special agency, and right now I'm on a mission that requires my full attention. So we cannot accept your offer.

(How dare he talk to Auntie like this.) Ranma low speaked to himself. (Some wyrm spawn acting like he's one of us.)

"Is there something wrong with your nephew?" Herb asked, having noticed Ranma's hostile look.

Nabiki interjected. "Don't mind him, he's sort of an idiot." Using a disguise spell, she returned to her original human appearance and age. Although she did make a few alterations, minor imperfections were erased, certain things received more tone, and she may have added a tiny amount to her bust. Just a little bit, just to make the revealing green dress she materialized stand out more.

Her appearance had the desired effect and more from Herb and the two other boys, the Prince's entourage literally drooled. Normally she wouldn't be so forward, but she was tired of being naked in front of a guy, Herb was also a prince which meant money, and he was absolutely gorgeous.

"Um- um- um- uh-." Herb stammered, his eyes doing anything but look her in the eye.

"This is my card." Debra waved a small piece of paper in front of Herb's eyes. "It will allow me to locate you, and I'll do so in a few days time. I'll answer any questions you may have then."

"Tha-thank you." Herb quickly took the card from Debra's hand so that he could continue gazing at her chest.

"Herb, are those breasts?" The little wolf boy asked in amazement.

"They must be, they are on a girl's chest." The tiger one added.

"Yes they are breasts." She told the pair. 'Haven't these two ever seen a girl?'

"We really must be going." Debra grabbed her by the shoulder, and before she knew it they were hurtling through the air at high speed. Finding herself once again resting in Debra's large clawed hand, she settled in for the ride home, disappointed that she couldn't get to know the Prince some more.

"Hey, tell me when you're going to visit him, I want to tag along." She told the dragon.

"Absolutely not." Debra replied without hesitation. "It'd be best if you never mentioned him to a soul."

"What? Why?"

"Because wyrms and drakes are forbidden from having children. I'm going to have to go back and tell that poor boy that he'll probably be killed on sight if he ever goes to Jade. Even on Earth he's not safe."

"You're kidding?" She grimaced.

"I'm exaggerating, not by much, but you get the point." Debra admitted.

"Well still tell me. He was pretty cute." Finding that she could breath easily in the thin air, Nabiki was momentarily happy that she could find men attractive once again, before she realized that it was just part of the disguise spell to experience things as the disguised species would.

X x x x x x

Genma was currently a happy man, Ranma was out getting a cure with his Aunt, and this could only be a good thing. Ranma's personality had taken such a rapid nose dive after getting the curse, that lately he had begun to fear that his son might go too far. That wasn't exactly true, Ranma already had when he had changed Nabiki into a wyrm. But that also appeared to be taking care of itself quickly.

He had only met Debra a handful of times, usually on Ranma's birthday, and she had surprisingly treated him with far more respect than even his own wife did. Nod'ka often took the view that he was just a slightly intelligent pet, never an equal in their relationship. It was easy for him to grow angry over her attitude, however he had the reverse of viewing her as simply a huge incredibly powerful reptile, and often forgetting that she was incredibly intelligent.

Honestly he was not very interested in returning to Jade or having Nod'ka come stay at the former Tendo home. They worked far better apart. Ranma himself had plenty of time to spend with his mother. Genma always felt a large lump form in his chest at the thought that he would never truly see Ranma become a man. Looking at Akane, who was trying to dig information on something or other out of Two, he knew that was the reason he had tried to fulfill the marriage pact. Ranma could easily appear an adult, so why not take advantage of that?

Food had already been served, no one expected the trio back before tomorrow, and they had retired to relax around the living room. Soun was reading the newspaper, Kasumi was knitting, and he was meditating on basically nothing. Grunting to himself, he crossed his arms, and closed his eyes to try and focus on something more important, like Ranma's physical training. Which his ungrateful boy was always lazy about.

Since he wasn't expecting Ranma to return, he was surprised when the outer door which lead out to the koi pond suddenly slammed open, and his son padded in with a look on his dragon face like he had just eaten a lot of sour grapes. Without a word, Ranma fled down the hallway towards the kitchen.

Entering in next was a fully re-aged Nabiki, with her hair having been changed to a familiar shade of blueish purple color, and wearing a dress that looked painted on. She looked mostly angry, with a hint of excitement that he had seen on Ranma before something went wrong. Debra followed in behind, shutting the door with a light clap of the wood.

"Nabiki did you dye your hair?" Kasumi asked absently.

"Blame the big snake guy." The girl asked, sitting down with a huff. Genma noticed that Two didn't look particularly happy about this new development, but held her tongue.

"Alright, I'll try and explain this as simply as I can." Debra quickly grabbed the Tendo's attention. "We found the source of Jusenkyo, Ranma is cured, Nabiki miss phrased her request, and so she's a dragon now. I'm going to work on getting this fixed, but that might be a long time. Till then if something big comes up, I'll give you the phone number to contact me." Reaching into her coat pocket, Debra pulled out a white business card, and placed it on the table. "Other than that, if Nabiki has a question, Ranma should be able to answer it."

"You're kidding right?" Nabiki scoffed at her idea of using Ranma for information. "He's looked at me like he was going to rip my throat out since we got out of that cave." Genma raised an eyebrow, trying to understand why Ranma would be so hostile, especially if Nabiki was now a dragon. Grimacing, Genma realized that this change may just be the exact reason.

"Genma, it's probably your place to tell her." Debra shifted her attention to him.

"Tell her what?" He asked, trying to get out of whatever complicated possibly emotional thing he might have to explain.

"What it was that made Nod'ka want you to bring Ranma to Earth realm." The dragon in human form gave a much needed clue to what she wanted him to talk about.

"It would be best to discuss such things in private." He delayed, shifting his glasses to sit better on his nose.

"How much more private do you need?" Akane asked him.

"Well, Nabiki is the only one really affected by it." He pointed out. "I think it'd be best if just she heard."

X x x x x x

Nabiki was herself rather curious over what this new piece of information could tell her. It may be good for blackmail material later, though having her species changed forcibly probably trumped everything else. But as someone who occasionally dealed with information, she definitely saw the advantage of knowing even just one fact about Ranma that would put her above the egotistical boy.

Genma informed her that she should follow him, and being curious as she was, she followed him into the large empty room at the entrance to her home. Truthfully she had never figured out why the large room was empty, while she and her sisters all had smaller rooms upstairs. Debra came as well, she entered last, and shut the door before casting a spell Nabiki couldn't help but memorize and learn to cast herself. It was a simple spell that created a dead zone for sound around the area, so no one outside would be able to listen in.

Nabiki couldn't stop a small smile from spread across her face at that. The ability to simply know magic was so powerful that it was almost addicting. She could almost understand why Ranma could feel so superior to humans. Quickly her mind realized that Ranma was actually right. As a dragon her lifespan was nearly indefinite. A hundred years wasn't even enough to restore her to her real physical age. Instantly being able to know and do magic simply by seeing it. Stronger in every way without a day of training. 'Oh yes, I can definitely see the advantage.'

"Hey, pay attention." Debra snapped her out of her thoughts to see that Genma had taken a kneeling position at the center of the floor.

"I am, I am." She agreed absently, taking a seat herself.

"Yes, it all began back when Ranma was only a few years old and on Jade. I was living with Nod'ka in her－ very expensive home, Ranma for the most part spent his time with his mother, though occasionally he would spend time in sort of a dragon day care."

"All dragons are taught from a very young age, comparably, a human would be a toddler when it starts." Debra supplied.

"As I was saying." Genma coughed into his hand. "Being that Ranma was half human, he was occasionally a target for attacks."

"One of our races failings." Debra interrupted again. "Even I have had to deal with discrimination."

"So you and Ranma are half human?" She asked.

"No, but my－ father." Debra said with a strange and unplaceable inflection to her voice. "Is not a platinum dragon like my mother, so while still a full dragon, I'm also still a half breed to many."

"Oh."

"Can I finish?" Genma coughed again, this time louder. "It's like talking with two Nod'ka's." He said under his breath. "I'll cut right to the heart of the matter, Ranma was nearly killed by an older dragon. Ever since then, Ranma's been trying to show how much of a dragon he is. It's irrational, but he won't let it go, and he blames his human side for it."

"And this applies to me how?"

"I don't know, Debra asked." Genma said evasively.

"Ranma is jealous of you." Debra explained. "He likely sees it as an affront to himself that Grandfather made you a full dragon."

"Why should I care if he's jealous of me? He can get over it. It's his own fault that I ended up like this, not mine." Crossing her arms, she was thoroughly sick of giving into Ranma's ego.

"A good point." Genma conceded. "But since Ranma is cured, that removes one piece of that puzzle. Leaving only you."

"I would look on it as a－ personal favor. If you would try to move past what he did to you, and to－ if I could use an old human expression, extend the olive branch." Debra added. "I'm sure he'd reciprocate, and then I wouldn't have to worry about any future incidents between you two."

"A favor?" She asked, wondering what treasures Debra might have to relinquish.

"On the condition that I don't have to come back because you two are fighting." Debra stated.

"And what do I get back?"

"I'm sure I have some old priceless knick knack that I could part with." Debra waved her hand dismissively.

"Alright I'll do it." She agreed readily, the urge to have something valuable in her possession overruling any second thoughts she might have had. She didn't know why, she just wanted, no had to have something.

X x x x x x

Nabiki had retired to her room to do some house cleaning. Having no more need for actual clothing, she started to root through her closet, dropping anything that didn't immediately catch her eye on her bed. Comparing the fabrics to what she had currently called from thin air, she found nearly all of them lacking.

"What's up Sis?" She asked, having heard Akane's heavy footsteps approach.

"Did Ranma do anything else to you? I swear I'll bash him worse than I did when he turned you into a wyrm." Her younger sister growled. Akane was also conveniently forgetting that Two had physically restrained Akane when she had hit Ranma. Nabiki knew that it was Ranma's own instructions that had kept Akane alive.

"No that idiot didn't actually do anything to me." She admitted, though watching Akane chase Ranma around would be fun to watch.

"Then what did that strange woman and his father want to talk to you about?"

"The dragon lady just wanted me to get along with him."

"That's it?"

"Yup." Nabiki was relatively certain that Akane wouldn't tease Ranma if she found that he had a complex about being half human. "I'm even going to get some priceless item from her if I do."

"Are you feeling alright?" Akane asked, shifting topics.

"Actually I feel great." She admitted. Not only did she have the instant ability to know and understand magic, but her life had just been lengthened exponentially. It was such a liberating feeling to know that it would take millennia before she would die of old age. "Hmm, I wonder what it's like to fly." She pondered, thinking it may be fun to give it a try later.

"You're alright with turning into a big lizard?"

"Infinitely more so than a giant snake." What a horrible existence it must be for Two, a slave just because of how she was born. 'Oh well, least it's not me.'

"Are you sure you're feeling alright? You're talking kind of funny."

"How so?" She asked absently, chucking another piece of clothing on her bed.

"I don't know. It just seems like you're acting more like Ranma."

"Hey, I'm just trying to make the best of a situation. It's not like I can just poof myself back into a human."

"Sorry, I didn't really think how you might feel, I guess."

"Eh, no worries." She waved off her sisters concern.

"So why are you going through your clothes? Anything I can borrow?" Akane asked, picking up a white jacket to inspect. "Hey wait a minute, this is mine!"

"Is it? I must have borrowed it and never given it back. But you can have it back now, I don't need it."

"Gee that's nice of you." Akane answered flippantly before eying her closet, and grabbing another item. "This is mine too!" She clutched a blouse to her chest. "I looked for this forever, why do you have it?"

Nabiki responded with a shrug. "Must have gotten mixed up by Kasumi."

"No because I asked her about it. Honestly Nabiki, here I am worried about you, and now I find out that you've been hoarding my clothes?" With as much indignation as she could get, Akane gathered up all the clothes Nabiki had loaned from her sister over the years. "Honestly!" She exclaimed as she left.

"What? They're just clothes." Rolling her eyes, Nabiki now had a much lighter closet, and could set about remaking her wardrobe.

X x x x x x

Finally being able to get the necessary forms filled out with the help of Genma, Debra was planning on getting out of Japan and back to the states to spend some quality time with her fiance Agen, but she had one last thing to do.

"Ranma, you get down here this instant." Debra called up the steps at the entrance of Nod'ka's new home.

Ranma peaked his head around the rail at the top after a moment. "I don't wanna." He shot back around, vanishing from sight.

"Don't make me come up there young man." She mock warned. Clearly her cousin was making a big show of being angry so that everyone would focus on him. Of course mister big bad ego needed to learn that there were far bigger egos in the world who were not going to put up with him. 'Ah the draconic ego is such a strong thing.'

"Fine." Her cousin slowly trudged down the steps. Debra wasn't really Ranma's Aunt, but due to her age and maturity, it was more a title of endearment. When Ranma was another few hundred years old, they would be more like siblings.

"Now, I've talked to Nabiki, and you should help her out when you can." She held up a hand when he went to protest. "If I have to come back because you, or her are starting problems. I will be setting you up personally for special etiquette classes with MY mother, understand?"

"Ye- yes Aunty." He nodded rapidly, having no desire to be the focus of the Brood Queens attention.

"Good, now give me a hug." Kneeling down, she held out both her arms.

"Awww, do I have to?" He complained, glancing around to make sure none of the humans were around.

"Yes."

"Awww." He whined but in the end gave her a hug.

'I wonder if I can convince Agen to have our own child.' She wondered, Ranma was so cute at this age; of course young dragons were also constant trouble makers, so it would probably be best to get that out of her own system before trying to parent another. "And I'm still going to call your mother."

X x x x x x

Standing in the doorway to his home, Ranma watched Debra vanish in a flash of light due to some technology acting as a magical gateway. Pouting, he wasn't looking forward to the next time he talked to his mother. On the plus side, his mother had planted the idea in his head, so she couldn't really blame him for it. She would also be very interested in finding out that he had met Exthilion.

"Sire?" Two asked demurely from behind him.

"Hmm, what is it?" He asked, turning to look at the wyrm.

"Forgive me if this is out of place, but since Six has become a dragon, do you wish for me to serve her as well?"

Ranma's first reaction to the question was anger. Anger that Exthilion would decide to make Nabiki into a dragon. Anger that Nabiki was actually more of a dragon than he was. Debra's recent instruction on the matter stopped his anger cold. Sighing, he had little choice in what he could do.

"If she asks for something, say no." He told the wyrm. "She's not part of my family."

"Yes Sire－ Is there anything I can get for you?"

"No." He answered. Two bowed and quickly reentered the home. 'That's kind of weird, she seemed really depressed. Oh well.'

X x x x x x

Author Notes

1 – Ranma being half human gives him a partial ability to understand the how of magic, while all full dragons are incapable of understanding such details about magic. Since this gives Ranma a rather unique and powerful ability, Exthilion will be keeping an eye on Ranma.

2 – Since dragons usually stick to their own subgroup, Exthilion assumed that Nabiki was a playmate that Ranma had cursed as a rather mean spirited practical joke. So, Nabiki is now a full platinum dragon.


	4. Here Be Dragons

"Speech"  
'Thought'  
(Low speak)  
#Panda sign#

X x x x x x

"I'm sorry." Ranma fiddled with his human fingers as his mother berated him over his palantir. Sitting in his room with the orb floating in front of him, Nod'ka was in her true form, and back in her lair. Debra hadn't wasted any time in contacting his mother, and he had just been lying down to get some sleep when she had called him.

"I'm very happy that Grandfather was so gracious as to remove that curse, and you should be thanking him every night for such a gracious act." She waved a claw at him, obviously trying to come up with more things to be angry with.

"I will." He wilted further.

"And this whole business with that human girl. What kind of bumbling fool is your father raising you to be?"

"If Auntie hadn't shown up." He tried to defend himself, not daring to bring up that it had been Nod'ka herself that had suggested he do something to Nabiki.

"What was that?" Nod'ka got in close to her own palantir, her large glowing eyes daring him to continue.

"Nothing." He said quickly.

"That's what I thought, now I better not hear about you two squabbling like a pair of hatchlings."

"Yes mother." He nodded, though he was still considered a hatchling.

"Hmm." Nod'ka cupped her chin between two claws. "D'bra said that the middle sister would likely remain a dragon."

"Seems like it, I already caught her throwing out her old human clothing." Ranma rolled his eyes at the new Dragon's ego. Nabiki was obviously quite smitten with her blessing, but who wouldn't be?

"Since that is, you should be nice to her young man."

"But momma!" He whined, his head shooting towards the door, along with pointing an accusing finger in the same direction. "Don't sit there spying on me."

"You're loud enough that I could hear you downstairs." Nabiki answered, stepping out from behind the door. She was in an adult human form, dressed in a form hugging set of shiny silk pajamas. "But I'm interested in why they don't know what you're saying while I do."

"Come in dear." Nod'ka invited the human turned Dragon in. Nabiki took the invitation to come in and kneel in front of the palantir. "The humans downstairs do not understand us, because we are speaking in draconic. It is instinctive to all Dragons and lesser creatures such as wyrms and drakes." Nabiki simply nodded her head in understanding.

Nod'ka's head twisted side to side briefly. "Would you mind turning into your true form?"

"This is my real form." Nabiki answered.

His mother smirked. "There's no need to be shy, you're a Dragon now, not some under evolved ape."

"Fine." Nabiki dropped her disguise, and now stood on all fours in Dragon form. Shaking her head briefly, Nabiki sat down. "Ugh the change in perspective."

Ranma stared at his mother, wondering why she had wanted Nabiki take her new body. It wasn't like either of them couldn't instantly see what she was. Nabiki wasn't even that impressive looking. The same size as himself, there weren't any of the physical differences that developed between males and females yet. If she didn't have more purple to her coloring, humans wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"You'll be very beautiful when you grow up." Nod'ka complimented the new Dragon, who smiled after a moment. "I'll call you back in a day or two." The elder Dragon turned back to him.

"Right." He nodded, happy that he wasn't going to be verbally berated anymore. The power to Nod'ka's palantir cut out, and he shoved his own back into storage.

"So where do you get one of those?" Nabiki inquired.

"They're very expensive and on Jade." He answered haughtily. "Who would you want to contact anyway?"

"Good point." The other Dragon admitted.

"Ranma would you quit making so much noise? I'm trying to get to sleep." Akane whined from the doorway. The youngest sister looked between him and Nabiki, back again, then slowly took a step back from the door. "Two－ two of you?" gasped.

"Hey sis." Nabiki waved a clawed hand at her sister.

Shaking her head violently side to side, Akane took a very deep breath. "I'm too tired to deal with this." informed them, quickly running back to her room.

"Hmm, that gives me an idea." Ranma said to himself.

"Oh?"

Glancing over at Nabiki with a sly look he laughed to himself. "You want to have some fun with your family?" Ranma may not like that Nabiki was now a Dragon, he may not like that it was actually his fault, but maybe just maybe they could get along.

X x x x x x

Akane nearly stumbled while walking down the steps before slowing her pace, and making her way to the living room already smelling breakfast. While the wyrm who was a slave to Ranma had a beyond poor attitude, she and Kasumi made a good pair in the kitchen. Maybe tomorrow she would get up early and help out too!

In the living room, her father was sitting with his nose buried in a newspaper. Taking a seat to his right, she waited patiently for everyone else to show up. The first to arrive was a familiar and unwanted shape, that being Ranma in Dragon form. Trotting in like he owned the place, the winged reptile took a seat exactly opposite of her. 'Oh wait, he does own the place now.' She thought darkly on her father and elder sister for their greed.

Akane heard another set of four legged footsteps, and watched a second Dragon enter into the room to sit down next to the previous. Rubbing at her eyes, she looked between the two, forcing herself to remember that Nabiki had now become a Dragon. That didn't stop her from feeling freaked out that they were both staring at her with eyes that were glowing a soft blue.

"Good morning, Nabiki." She greeted slowly and to neither of them specifically, unsure which of the two Dragons was her sister.

"Good morning." Both said in almost complete unison, their voices were as similar as their looks, leading to no help in figuring out which was which.

"Uh, which one of you is which?" She asked while frowning.

"Which one is which?" They answered again, though there was a bit of a delay as the one on the right spoke first. Akane's frown deepened, wondering if she should just clock both of them, and get it over with.

"Oh my, how adorable!" Kasumi gushed at the two Dragons, nearly dropping the food that she had been carrying in her mad dash to gather up a Dragon up into a big hug, clearly overcome by some strange notion that the big lizards were cute. Two, who had been following Kasumi in just rolled her eyes and continued setting the table.

"Wow, this is really annoying." One of the Dragons, that Akane could now guess was Nabiki commented as Kasumi began petting her. Though Akane was still at a loss on how to tell the two apart. Ranma made the mistake of snickering and was quickly caught by Kasumi, who attempted to hold both of the two meter long Dragons in her lap.

"And this would be worse." Ranma added as both Dragons squirmed from Kasumi's grasp to escape to Akane's side of the table.

"Hey, don't use me as a shield." She protested, catching Genma coming into the room wearing his usual gi.

"Alright boy, you're getting pudgy." Genma grabbed the Dragon on her left by the back of the neck and the tail. "Training time."

"Wait I'm not Ranma!" The Dragon protested to no avail as it was thrown into the koi pond.

"I know what my own son looks like." Genma nodded to himself. "Oh wait, you're Ranma."

"I'm Nabiki!" The Dragon soon joined the other in the pond.

"Well I was sure to get the right one now." Genma began to laugh, only to stop suddenly.

Akane shifted herself to the side to see past Genma's form to see both Dragons sitting in the water in similar poses, the small light emitting spots along their heads, necks, and forearms glowing brightly. 'Not my problem.' She quickly slid out of the line of fire in time to miss the explosion.

X x x x x x

"I'm leaving." Akane told Kasumi while grabbing her bento from the kitchen. She was going to be late due to Nabiki and Ranma being annoying.

"I thought you were already gone." Kasumi answered, demurely placing a hand on her right cheek.

"No." Shrugging off the oddity, she slipped on her shoes and ran from the home towards school.

As she was going down the road, she came up behind twin girls in Furinkan uniforms. For some reason they seemed really familiar. Turning her head as she passed, Akane tripped, and fell on her face. "Ack!" Cringing in pain, she clutched at her nose.

"Oh dear, it looks like Akane fell." A voice perfectly matching her own, commented.

"That's very true, Akane did fall." A second one added a half beat later.

Hastily getting to her feet, Akane stared at her two twins, each one with an amused smirk on their face. Many questions were running through her mind but the biggest one to stand out was who these two were?

"Don't hurt yourself thinking." The Akane on the left laughed.

"That does seem to be a bit of a problem with her." The right one joined in.

"Wait a minute." She narrowed her eyes as things began to click into place; Kasumi thinking that she had already left as well as the superior look in her clone's eyes and that dismissive tone.

"Ooh, she may have got it." The right one clapped her hands.

"I don't know which one of you is which." She made a big show of rolling up sleeves that didn't exist. "But what I do know is that Ranma is being perverted, and I need to knock the stupid out of my sister's head before she's as infected with it as Ranma."

"It seems we hit a nerve Akane."

"That we did Akane."

"GAH!" She screamed and tried to hit the closest twin who dodged out of the way, and the two took off down the road towards the school. "Come back here!" She called out, charging after them.

X x x x x x

Kuno Tatewaki stood in the gate into Furinkan waiting for his one true love to arrive. He did not accept that she had been defeated by anyone else. That fluke the other day was obviously caused by the foul magic of that Dragon who had begun to defile his place of learning with it's presence. Even the mercenary Nabiki had been caught in his spell, being turned into a small child.

He was musing about that development to the point where he almost missed his two loves running towards him, laughing and giggling with the obvious intent on jumping into his waiting embrace. "Two loves?" He questioned and rubbed his eyes just to be sure he wasn't seeing things. Then an even more incredible thing happened, a third Akane appeared behind the other two.

Grabbing a nearby student by his shirt and forcibly bring him up to his face, Kuno looked between the three Akanes before turning to the student. "Am I seeing things?"

"No."

"Then what am I seeing?"

"Three Akanes."

"Thank you." He released the student. "Hold!" He yelled running up to the three girls.

X x x x x x

Nabiki was enjoying herself, Akane wasn't fast enough to catch them, and she wasn't even close to being out of breath. Just another advantage to being a Dragon, she reasoned. Of course if she wasn't a Dragon she probably wouldn't have been able to disguise herself as Akane without a great deal of magical training. So what if she was basically a big lizard now? She didn't want to go back to being just a human anymore, not if it meant giving up this kind of instant power.

She almost didn't notice Kuno, but was forced to because Ranma grabbed the back of her uniform to stop her from running into him. This momentary distraction allowed the real Akane to catch up and hit her over the head with enough force to knock her to the ground before Ranma joined her a second later.

"You two idiots! Stop looking like me right now!" Akane simmered briefly before Kuno gathered her up in a hug.

"That fire! That spirit! This must be the real one!" The kendo garbed teen yelled happily. Kuno's declaration was followed by a violent end when Akane hit him hard enough to send him flying up to the top of the school.

(I think we should change back.) She low speaked to Ranma and used the disguise spell to change back into her human body. Watching Akane huff and puff while glaring at the direction she had just knocked Nabiki's classmate, she really didn't want to be on the receiving end of that anger.

(Good idea.) Ranma nodded but took the same form Nabiki had just taken.

"What's the big idea?" She demanded.

"Why did you take my body?" Ranma countered.

"Your body? That's my body!" Nabiki got right into Ranma's face.

"Oh don't worry." Akane butted in, placing a hand on both of their shoulders. Nabiki slowly turned her head to look at Akane's smiling face at the same time Ranma did. "I think you both have this coming."

X x x x x x

Sitting under his usual tree to eat lunch, Ranma cast a simple reflective spell, and frowned at the human face that was shown. He liked blue, but the black really didn't work on top of human skin tone. 'It was just a joke.' He dispelled the mirror to start eating his food. 'Stupid violent tomboy.'

Starting to dig into the meal prepared by Two, he paused when a magical mirror was summoned in front of him again. "Nabiki." He rolled his eyes. "Do you know what a real Dragon has?"

"What?" The other Dragon asked sitting down with her own lunch. Nabiki was also showing signs of violence but was disguised as a human her original age.

"Style." He answered. "Throwing around any spell that you see is tacky."

"I'll keep your advice under advisement." Nabiki replied without taking him serious, preferring to reach up and touch her bruised cheek and wince. "Akane can hit hard."

"You have a gorilla for a sister." He added. Normal humans weren't able to hurt a Dragon, even newly hatched Dragons were impervious to most physical attacks because their bodies were naturally armored, unlike the delicate and fragile flesh of humanoids.

"No argument there. So why is it that you agreed to turn into a girl? I thought you hated it?"

"Hmm?" He glanced over to the new Dragon with his chopsticks hanging from his mouth. "No, it was turning into a human I didn't like."

"Oh? So do you randomly turn into a girl whenever you－ feel the need?"

"Feel what need?" He asked, not understanding her implication.

"Nevermind." Nabiki didn't explain her strange wording. Shrugging and assuming that it was some strange human thing that the new Dragon was still clinging to, he went back to eating his lunch. "Ne, Ranma, am I seeing things?"

"Hmm?" Ranma looked up from his foods to look across the school yard to where Nabiki was looking. It was a troll boy, taller than the humans around him staring with confusion at a large piece of paper. Like all trolls his skin was green, his ears were pointed, and he was more muscular with a bulkier build. A massive traveling pack was strapped to his back that was actually bigger than him. "Oh crap."

"What do you mean 'oh crap?'" Nabiki asked.

"Just hope he doesn't look over here."

"Too late." The other Dragon sing songed.

"Ra'ma!" The green teen yelled and charged towards him.

Ranma cursed before dropping his lunch and getting to his feet. "_Earth wall_!" He shot both of his hands forward and the ground exploded upwards directly in front of the troll making him run face first into it. There was a brief pause before a fist broke through the wall, the other followed a moment later, before it was shattered by the troll pushing both hands out to the side.

"HA!" The troll smirked, using the Jade language of Basic. "I knew it was you, even if you are hiding as a kid."

"Why don't you just leave me alone?" Ranma quickly thought up the next spell he was going to use.

"For making my life a living hell, I will kill you." The troll boy growled, reaching above his head to pull an umbrella off his backpack before shrugging it off.

"Listen Ryoga." Ranma knew that the troll was not the smartest around so maybe he could avoid sparring with him today.

"I'm not going to listen to your tricks anymore Dragon."

Ranma avoided a stab from the blunt end of the umbrella by jumping to the side. 'Ryoga's gotten faster.' He noted. Jumping upwards to avoid a horizontal slash, he cartwheeled over the attack, and briefly placed his hand on the umbrella to place a spell on it that would make it impossibly heavy. Landing, he was about to go on the offensive, expecting that the troll would be distracted, only to catch a green fist to the face that sent him flying backwards into the tree where he had been sitting for lunch.

"Ha ha! Now that I have this I'll finally be able to defeat you." Ryoga boasted, hefting the umbrella. "Dwarven steel."

"How'd an idiot like you afford something like that?" Ranma wasn't all that hurt from the attack, his natural resistance to damage helping to absorb the blow, and a small magical barrier had stopped his impact with the tree. He did have a problem, his magic would be negated by the steel, so he had to rely on his physical abilities.

"Shut up!" Ryoga snapped. "Tell me, do Dragons like their dead sent anywhere? I'd be more than happy to send you back to your mommy as a nice hand bag."

"Oh you're going to pay for that." Ranma altered his human form to be older and cracked his knuckles. As a child, Ryoga had far too much of an advantage just from reach, and with his magic limited to indirect attacks, he needed to compensate.

X x x x x x

"Hey Akane look at this!" Sayuri pointed out the window of the classroom.

"What is it?" She asked, having finished her lunch, she rose from her desk to see what her friend was looking at.

Ranma, in human teenager form, was fighting a green boy a head taller than him, and he seemed to be having a lot of difficulty battling the strange teen. The two were moving quickly around the school yard, Ranma avoiding physical attacks and trying to hit the green boy with various magical attacks, only to have them dissipate harmlessly off an umbrella the other teen was using like a club.

"Wow, looks like someone is finally going to put him in his place." She commented, smiling at the idea of Ranma's ego brought low. "Woah!" She watched as Ranma cast a particularly brightly colored and impressive looking spell that exploded in a shower of blinding bright sparks.

X x x x x x

'Good thing Pop isn't here or he'd be annoying me over how much I've slacked off.' Ranma avoided an attack by Ryoga, the umbrella he was swinging going easily through a tree trunk. 'If he didn't have that stupid umbrella this would be over.' Ryoga was stronger and with his troll heritage was very durable. Ranma's natural armor was completely negated by Ryoga's strength and little of his indirect attacks could do any real damage. He couldn't even cast an amnesia spell due to the direct metal connection.

'He might actually be able to beat me.' He realized, noticing that his ether was running very low. Catching Ryoga in the chin with a side kick, the green boy staggered backwards while clutching his mouth in pain. Grabbing the umbrella, he pulled it back over the teen's fist. Ryoga didn't let go until Ranma had nearly broken his arm.

"Hey!" Ryoga protested the loss of his weapon. Avoiding Ryoga's attempts to grab him, he bounced out of the way until he was standing on top of the wall surrounding the school. The lost troll ground his teeth, the two lower tusks visible over his upper lip, and stared at him in impotent rage.

"I really have no clue how some talking monkey like you got a hold of dwarven steel, but I thank you for it." Ranma taunted, trying to remember if he could actually put such a magic canceling item in magical storage.

"I'll kill you!" Ryoga leapt at him.

"You said that already." Ranma stepped out of the way and used the umbrella to strike Ryoga mid back.

Dropping down back to the school yard, he hid the umbrella behind him, and altered his disguise to look like the human girl he was formerly cursed to become wearing a school dress. Ryoga was actually able to find his way back over the wall. He stopped immediately when he didn't see his opponent, looking around before his eyes found her.

"That disguise won't fool me!" He yelled and attempted to punch her in the face. Taking in a quick breath, she screamed, and closed her eyes tight. She heard Ryoga's feet miss a step and the attack never came. Forcing out some tears, she opened her eyes to see his fist very close to her head.

"Uh－ you're not Ranma?" Ryoga asked her.

"Who's Ranma? Just please don't hurt me." She begged.

"Oh! I'm so sorry." He quickly apologized. "You didn't happen to see a guy with blue hair go running by did you?"

"He went that way." She pointed back over the wall.

"Thank you very much and I'm really sorry about almost hitting you." He jumped back over the wall.

Smirking, Ranma brushed her bangs out of her eyes with a confident flick of her wrist. "Too stupid to be a threat."

X x x x x x

"That bastard!" Ryoga cried out and punched through a large tree trunk. "Not only did he get away but he stole my umbrella!" Rearing back his head he yelled up into the air. "I will kill you Ranma! You stupid Dragon!"

"A Dragon?" An older male voice answered him in Common.

Spinning around rapidly, Ryoga found a human man wearing Jade clothing, and leaning casually against a tree with a traveling pack set to the side. A wide brimmed hat covered the top half of his face. The man's clothing consisted of a vest made of brown reptilian leather over a black shirt. His pants were a set of jeans from Earth realm and hanging from his left hip was a sword.

"Am I back on Jade?" Ryoga asked. The language on Earth realm was sometimes similar to Common but where he usually ended up was just a confusing gibberish with strange runes for lettering.

"No." The man answered slowly. "Earth realm, I believe it's called Canada. But you mentioned a Dragon?"

"Uh ya, this Dragon I have to kill." Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, Ryoga cursed the mage who had put the spell on him that had ruined his life. "Or I can never find my way home again." Two years he had been stuck with this curse, two years spent wandering aimlessly, unable to find his way even from room to room. Except to find the one that he must defeat.

"My name is Arkis, tell me more because I think we could help each other out."

X x x x x x

"Come on Ranma, spill." Nabiki demanded.

Rolling his eyes, Ranma continued to walk home from school with both Akane and Nabiki continuing to pester him on who Ryoga was. Twirling his recent acquisition, he still couldn't figure out what to do with it considering it was magic dead zone. That meant he needed a physical space to store it in. 'Guess I'll have to start construction of some kind of lair at mom's new house.'

"I'll stop asking if you just explain." Akane added after her sister.

'Tempting.' He was still less than happy over Akane assaulting him earlier. Something that he would have to pay her back for soon enough.

"Well it's like this. A couple years ago the Troll, Ryoga, ended up bumping into me while he's wandering around like the idiot that he is. I notice he has this curse on him and I politely inform him of it. Ever since then he's been randomly showing up and trying to kill me."

"Is that normal?" Akane asked. "Cause I can see that being pretty common."

Ranma stopped in midstep and turned to look at Akane with all the casual disregard he could muster for her welfare. "Hmm."

"What?" The girl asked.

"Nabiki." He looked to the other Dragon, deciding to give her some say in this. "Do you care much about your sister?" The new Dragon gave him a raised eyebrow in response. "I was just thinking that I would try another experiment with the magic from Jusenkyo." Sure Grandfather Exthilion had told him not to do so but the great serpents eyes weren't everywhere.

"That sounds interesting." Nabiki slowly turned to give Akane a similar look to his own. "It would be－ amusing from an outside perspective."

Akane's eyes widened and she took a step away from them. "Now wait a minute."

"Since Two is still here, Akane could become a Wyrm before the magic breaks apart." He suggested.

"And you remember what happened when you did that to me, right?" The blue haired girl asked sarcastically.

Ranma had to take a moment to realize Nabiki's implication before he did come up with the memory of her being able to casually beat him like a drum. Imagining that with Akane's already violent nature, he repressed a shudder. "Perhaps I was being too hasty."

"Oh just shut up." Akane punched him in the arm.

X x x x x x

Four days later

"Saotome Ranma, get back in your seat this instant." The teacher called across the room to him.

"But I have to go use the－."

"You did that five minutes ago and ten minutes before then. Now sit back down and do your work or you will fail this class."

Grumbling something insulting towards the teacher in Draconic, he did as ordered. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, he tentatively raised his right hand up and let it fall down on the computer mouse.

"What's the matter? Is the superior Dragon scared of a little ol computer?" Akane teased from a nearby computer.

"It's broken." He protested, violently shoving the mouse around to get the computer to do something.

"That's because you have to click." A girl next to him giggled good naturedly at his inability.

"Click? What's that going to do?"

"How can you be this terrible with computers?" Akane rolled her eyes at him.

Crossing his arms in irritation, he glared at the monitor, and tried to figure out why these things were so important to humans. The images it did display were boring and he even had trouble noticing what was happening on it. A Dragon's vision wasn't tied to such crude physical means like a lower life forms was.

"Ra'ma! Come out and face me you coward!" A familiar voice cried out in common.

"Hey teach, is a challenge a valid excuse?" He called to the man at his desk.

"Fine go ahead."

"Great!" His chair was knocked over in his haste to get to the window and to jump through it. Changing into his teenage human form, he landed on the grass, and ran towards his incompetent sparring partner who was standing on the concrete in front of the main entrance. "That was quick Ryoga, here I wasn't expecting you for another week at the earliest."

"Where's my umbrella?" The troll growled and pulled back his lip to sneer at him.

"It's in a safe place." He smiled at the other Jade resident, knowing that the Dwarven steel weapon was safely stashed away. "You're in luck though, I do want to fight you today so you may－ if I make some colossal mistake, be able to break that curse you have."

"Oh I will be breaking it today, irregardless of what plans you have."

"Regardless." Ranma pointed out.

"What?"

"It's not irregardless, it's just regardless."

"I'll say it however I want!" Ryoga yelled and charged at him. Weaving out of the way of a flurry of blows, he struck back with several of his own that Ryoga was able to block. Deflecting a punch to his face, Ranma planted his right heel into Ryoga's stomach, driving the cursed teen back several meters but otherwise doing no damage.

"Hold still!" The Troll growled and attempted to grab him. Knowing that if the other Jade resident got a hold of him it would be trouble, he hopped up into the air backwards to put some distance between them. Ryoga followed and Ranma smirked at the stupid move before punishing the cursed boy. Delivering three quick blows, he sent the Troll plummeting down and into the concrete. Landing lightly a short distance away, he didn't have to wait long before Ryoga was back on his feet like nothing had happened.

"Let's see how you deal with this." Raising up his hands and calling up a small amount of ether, the concrete beneath Ryoga in a circle broke apart into hundreds of pieces before rushing up to pelt the Troll rapidly. Staggering under the assault, Ryoga briefly tried to stand in the torrent before diving out of the way.

Still kneeling on the ground, Ryoga clutched at his face where a shard of concrete had nearly broken his nose. "Still using your cheap magic?"

"I should just give you that umbrella back so you might have a chance. Although if I just keep beating on you maybe you'll learn your place."

"My place? Look at you!"

"Hmm?" Glancing down at himself, his clothes looked good, he was his handsome human self, and he was casually dismissing any threat Ryoga held.

"You act like Dragons are all superior, but you do so wearing a human skin."

"I hardly need to take this form to beat you." He snorted.

"Prove it." A malicious smile spread over Ryoga's face and Ranma decided to wipe it off.

"Fine." He was just starting the spell to revert back to his true form when he noticed someone dropping a presence mask behind him. 'How did I miss that?' As his form shifted, his head slowly turned to see a human just as he struck him in the lower back. Screaming in pain, he collapsed to the ground in dragon form. Trying to regain his feet, his back legs, and tail refused to respond. Turning to look, he saw that they didn't even twitch, and he couldn't feel his body from the legs down.

"Heh, Dragons are all the same." The stranger laughed to himself.

'My back is broken.' Ranma's mouth was open in shock. A Dragon's bones were weak and easily broken during the brief time during a physical transformation.

"You－ what did you do?" Ryoga demanded from the man.

"What? I said I would help you defeat the Dragon." The man answered and brought a hand down to grasp the hilt of a sword. "Now I can finish it off."

"_Invera beam_!" Ranma shouted and channeled his entire reservoir of ether into frying every last nerve in the man's body. Every ether vent on his body lit up and red beams shot out a second later. The spell never hit because the man drew his sword and blocked, the weapon absorbing the magic intended to kill the human.

"Just like a Dragon, give em a good enough shock and they can't think straight." Twirling his broadsword briefly, he brought it down to point right at Ranma's nose.

"Why?" Ranma asked and shuffled himself backwards with his front legs. He couldn't think straight, his mind only focusing on how his magic was worthless and he was physically crippled.

"Cause you'll be worth a lot of money when I sell your hide." Pulling back his arm, the man prepared to strike. "Now hold still so I can kill you quick. Platinum scales will be enough for me to retire."

"Hey wait, you can't just execute him." Ryoga actually came to his defense, stepping partially between him, and the sword wielding human.

"What are you talking about kid? All I've heard since I met you was how much you wanted to kill this Dragon."

"It's one thing to kill somebody in a fight, but like this?"

"You're kidding right? Like it even matters, it's just a Dragon. If you were in his position he'd probably torture you and leave you to die."

"I have to be the one to beat him or I can't break the curse." Ryoga fully stepped between them.

"Go ahead then." Relaxing his stance, the man gestured towards Ranma with his free hand. "I can wait to clean up, it's not like anyone is going to get in the way."

X x x x x x

Watching the brutal blow to Ranma, Akane was frozen in indecision. She had never seen someone crippled, let alone to then go on to execute them. So she was hesitating in doing her duty as a martial artist and protect the weak. Primarily because she wondered what she could do to two people, one of which could fight Ranma, a Dragon, on equal footing. Ranma didn't look like much help, after attempting a magic spell, he just sat there staring up at the two in a daze.

"Nabiki." She whispered to herself and ran out into the hall to go get her sister. Nabiki was a Dragon now and would be able to use magic, together they should be able to handle this.

X x x x x x

Slowly stepping toward his crippled foe, Ryoga couldn't help but see the horror on the young Dragon's face. He had happily planned this day since he found the one he needed to defeat but now that the moment was staring him in the face, it was becoming impossible to go through with it. Not for the severe consequences that would happen if other Dragons ever found out that he had killed one of their own. He couldn't pin down the exact emotion that was causing this hesitation which was causing him further distress.

"You didn't beat me." Ra'ma finally said to him and he paused. "He did." Glowing blue eyes shifted subtly towards Arkis.

"I can beat you now just fine!" Ryoga grabbed the Dragon's slender neck and hauled him up to hold in the air in front of him.

"I won't fight."

"Doesn't matter!"

"You have to beat me in a fight. If I don't defend myself, that spell won't ever leave you, and if he kills me you'll wander forever."

"He's right." Ryoga realized, if Ra'ma didn't fight then it wouldn't be considered a defeat, so he wouldn't be able to satisfy the conditions of the curse. As soon as he had recognized that Ra'ma was the one, the curse had locked on to it.

"See that's going to be a problem." Arkis remarked. "I didn't come all this way just to walk away and they aren't going to happy when they hear about your part in this."

'Wander for eternity or be at the mercy of a Dragon court－ I can't decide which would be worse.' A slight buzzing in his head distracted him and he noticed Ra'ma's eyes glow a small amount brighter.

'_Ryoga, I normally don't use this spell but if you save me,I won't tell anyone about what you did._' Ra'ma's voice entered into his head.

'Why should I trust you?' He thought, hoping the Dragon would be able to hear him.

'_The Brood Queen is my Aunt, and she will find out. You can't get lost enough to get away with killing a possible heir.'_

'The Brood Queen!' He had known that Ra'ma might be related to T'mat but he hadn't thought about that causing any repercussions. 'I don't have weapon.' Ryoga knew he was a good fighter but Arkis had apparently killed several full grown dragons and would have a dangerous bag of tricks.

'_Unfortunately that umbrella is－ well this can't be good.'_ Ra'ma looked to Ryoga's right.

"What?" Ryoga asked out loud and turned to see some large black cylinder that would be impacting his face momentarily. "Oh."

X x x x x x

Whistling, Nabiki smirked as Akane's throw of the roller used to flatten the dirt on the baseball field hit the Troll in the face and drove him to the ground. The only reason she had agreed to help Ranma out is that he would owe her big time. 'Like he didn't already.' And Akane's promise to tell the man with the sword that there was another Dragon around that he could go after.

"You interfere?" The man asked with his hand ready to draw his sword. Nabiki had noticed that they weren't speaking Japanese and had used a translation spell so that she could understand him.

"If anyone is going to kill that annoying brat it's going to be me." She boasted.

The human looking man narrowed his eyes at her and pulled his sword halfway out of the scabbard. "Another Dragon?"

"And I just called D'bra!" Akane added.

"What did she say?" The man asked.

"Oh just that we contacted D'bra. Do you know her?" Nabiki asked innocently.

"The Brood Queen's daughter?" The sword was released.

"So you do know her. Yes she is a close relative－." Nabiki paused at noticing the Troll brush off the blow that probably should have caved his head in. "And I think she would be just ecstatic to meet you. She even has a direct portal to our home here."

"You're lying." He sneered.

"Do you really think you have the time to call me on that?"

The man gave no response before he reached a hand into his leather jacket and faded from sight. Nabiki's eyes tried to track the man after casting a Presence Mask but she realized too late how the spell worked as the aura trails around her literally exploded into a kaleidoscope of color. Groaning in pain, she covered up her eyes, and hoped it would pass quickly. (1)

"He's gone right?" Akane asked while looking around.

"No clue, that spell he cast just made me want to go lay down." Focusing on the Troll, Nabiki didn't know how to handle this one. She just lied through her teeth and was able to bluff the man into apparently leaving. "Now how to deal with you?" Continuing with the cool and confident route, she slowly sauntered towards the boy.

"Wait I changed my mind!" The boy said from his sitting position on the ground and holding his hands up in front of him.

"Why?"

"It's a long story and shouldn't you be more worried about getting him some help?"

Nabiki almost asked why again. "Probably."

Akane rushed over to Ranma's downed form and kept a wary eye on the Troll. "Uh－ you－ um－ what should we do? Don't think we can take you do a hospital."

Ranma stared blankly ahead for a moment before he tilted his head up and started to cry. "I want my momma!"

X x x x x x

Stepping through the portal, Debra stepped out on to the grass in her relative's yard, followed shortly by her boyfriend Agen in his human disguise. With a door on the side of the home open she could see that Nod'ka was already here and was cradling Ranma in her lap and the rest of the humans that lived in the home were also in the room. Rushing up into the home, she was happy to see that is wasn't a magical attack.

"Sorry, I had to find Agen." She said, the half dragon already taking a spot next to Ranma and starting to examine him.

"So long as my Son can walk again." Nod'ka answered with a small threat hidden in her voice.

"Aunty, Agen is here to help." Debra answered. "And he will do his best."

"I－ I apologize." The woman bowed her head.

"It's quite alright, lady Nod'ka." Agen reached into his bag and pulled out a potion. "I know you're just worried. Here, drink this." Ranma took a moment to look at the liquid before doing as instructed. Agen waited a moment before putting both of his hands over a spot above Ranma's hips. "This may sting a bit, please hold him still."

Nod'ka gripped Ranma tighter as Agen's hand began to glow and the ghostly image of his unicorn horn appeared on his forehead. Initially Ranma seemed puzzled at the lack of pain but quickly grit his teeth and started to squirm in his mother's grasp. Slowly at first then with increasing frequency, Ranma's back legs and tail started to twitch and as Agen finished casting the spell, Ranma's tail whipped up to smash her boyfriend in the face. Agen was knocked back on to the floor and sat rubbing his cheek.

"You alright?" She asked, knowing that a Dragon's tail was just as dangerous as the mouth.

"Should have seen that coming." He chuckled. "No shapeshifting for the next two days and I would suggest longer."

"We won't have to worry about that." Nod'ka spoke up as she nuzzled her face against Ranma's. "He'll be coming back home to Jade."

"But Nod'ka." Genma protested.

"But nothing!" Nod'ka snapped at her human husband. "I nearly lost my son today, most likely because of the oafish upbringing I've allowed him to have under you."

"I raised him to be a capable of defending himself. It's his ego that gets him into trouble. Guess who he gets that from?" Genma answered.

"You're going to blame this on me?"

"You're the one who filled his head with how special and superior he is."

"He's a Dragon! Of course he's superior!"

"Is that why I'm the one that raised him?"

"You know why I let him come to Earth realm with you."

"Because the last time he was on Jade one of your people nearly killed him!" Genma finished, stunning the people in the room who had not known about Ranma's past.

Debra would have liked to tell the two that perhaps this was a conversation for private but hesitated at the dejected look on her nephews face. Even back on Jade the incident had been kept private. The muscles around Nod'ka's eyes tightened.

"One of HIS people did because they saw you with him." Nod'ka said in a flat voice.

"Stop it." Debra stomped her foot and nearly broke through the floor board. "If you want to discuss this do it like adults, not like squabbling children." She felt like she may have overstepped herself by talking to her Aunt in such a way but Nod'ka's actions seemed to warrant it. "Now, can anyone tell me exactly what happened, and why is there a Troll here?"

X x x x x x

Listening to his parents argue inside the large room next to the entrance of the home, Ranma was lying on the floor because his back was still sore. Debra was interrogating Ryoga while the Tendos appeared to be keeping to themselves. Honestly he didn't care what the others were doing, he just knew that his parents were upset. Upset enough that Genma was actually standing up to Nod'ka and she hadn't even put up a privacy spell.

"You would be homeless if it wasn't for me. When you've actually contributed to my child's welfare you can dictate where he lives." Nod'ka snarled.

"Because throwing money at him is how you raise a kid." Genma replied. "First chance you had, you dropped him on me, and sent him away."

"If I hadn't been so benevolent as to let you into his life he never would have been hurt."

"So that explains why you've only seen him a handful of times since?"

"I don't have the time to spend every waking moment with him."

"No you just have the time to criticize every little thing I do. You show up whenever you feel like it, shower him with a few gifts, and then you vanish."

"How dare you talk to me like that? Listen human, it's obviously been a mistake to let him live like you vermin. He is a Dragon and it's high time that he started living as one."

"You're not taking my son anywhere."

"I would love to see you try to stop me." Nod'ka scoffed and started moving towards the door. "And I want you out of my home. You have an hour to get your things and get out." The final word was punctuated by Nod'ka slamming the door open.

Ranma jerked as if he had been hit in the back again as the sound hit his ears. She was storming out of the room when she caught sight of him. Taking several steps back, he looked between his two parents, trying to sort out what he should do. Torn between his loyalties he simply stood there looking back and forth. As much as he wanted to side with his mother, he had to admit that Genma was right about some things. She did put her job first, leaving him to live with Genma for the majority of his life.

"Ra'ma sweetie, you－ were listening?" Nod'ka knelt down to look him in the eye. "Listen, why don't you get your things, we're going to be going back to Jade."

"You heard her boy, do you want to go back to Jade? So you can be babysat by some wyrm or drake while she spends all day looking at scrolls?" Genma asked.

"I'll－." He paused. "I'll get my things." Ranma couldn't do it, as much as he wanted to side with Genma he had to go back with his mother. He was a Dragon and he never really belonged with his father in the first place.

"I see." Genma's face hardened and Ranma saw elation on his mother's.

He had thought making the choice would make living with it easier but he quickly imagined what it would be like without Genma in his life, and he didn't like what it felt like. "But Pop needs to come." He added.

"We can talk about it later." She answered him hesitantly. "I'm sure you'll be happy to see your friends again."

"The friends that watched?" Ranma asked, remembering quite clearly that the same friends had done nothing to help when an older Dragon had nearly killed him. He couldn't fault them for sticking their necks out for him but that didn't mean they were still his friends.

"That's not exactly fair now is it?" She stood back up. "You were all very young."

"Come on boy, I bet some food will make you feel better." Genma boasted and walked past him.

"Perhaps your father is right, why don't you go have a seat and I'll have Two prepare us something." Nod'ka added.

"Alright." He nodded.

X x x x x x

"Alright just so that I have this straight." Debra paused. "Ranma is the target of your curse and to break it you must defeat him." She was trying to figure out exactly what happened today by asking the Troll boy questions in the living room of Nod'ka's Earth realm home. Several of the human who used to own the property were also there including the new Dragon, Nabiki. Agen was next to her, taking his own careful mental notes of the situation.

"Yes ma'am." The troll answered with a quick nod of his head.

"Alright, and you've had this curse for how long?"

"I think it's been about a year."

"Jade or Earth realm year?"

"There's a difference?"

"Jade realm then." Crossing her arms, Debra actually felt pretty bad for the kid, to be lost for three of Earth's years? She could understand why he would get frustrated. "So you met the criminal Arkis here on Earth?"

"I－ I don't know, it looked like Earth."

"So why did he agree to help you?"

"He－ he said he didn't like Dragons, heard me－ venting over not being able to break the curse."

Keeping herself from visibly showing her displeasure over the obvious attempt at lying to her, she glanced at Akane and Nabiki, the two that had saved Ranma. "What did you see?"

Akane was the one to speak first. "I saw that Arkis guy appear out of nowhere and hit Ranma in the back while he was changing. He goes down and I went to get Nabiki for help. When I got back I saw him." She pointed to the Troll. "Holding Ranma up by the neck. So I threw the nearest heavy object at him. Nabiki then bluffed, saying you were about to show up, and so he left."

She was going to continue but stopped to greet her cousin as he entered into the room with Genma and then Nod'ka. "So what's your part in all this?" She asked him, knowing that he couldn't be some innocent party. "Why was he trying to kill you?"

"I wasn't! I was just trying to defeat him!" Ryoga protested immediately.

"Oh please." This time she rolled her eyes.

"He's right." Ranma spoke up. "That's all he wanted."

"I hardly care what he wanted, his actions nearly cost my son his life, and I will see him punished for it." Nod'ka said while glaring at the Troll.

"Mom, it was my fault, I kept taunting him to get him to fight harder." Ranma explained.

"Be quiet Ra'ma, this is going to be handled by adults." Nod'ka tried to silence her son and Ranma appeared uninterested in causing a fuss.

Ryoga for his part seemed to realize the danger he was currently in and was trying to make himself look very small. Holding her tongue, Debra wondered why Ranma would actually defend Ryoga. Certainly the two weren't friends and there was nothing to be gained for Ranma to protect Ryoga.

"As dangerous as the situation was, it was resolved without any permanent damage, and if Ranma says that Ryoga wasn't trying to truly hurt him, I don't think it's our place to punish the boy for that." Debra was going to have to question Ranma in private to find out why he was really up to. Nod'ka did not look happy about her decision and Debra quickly analyzed how she might stop her Aunt from doing something rash.

"However!" She quickly added. "I think it's prudent that I take him back to his people on Jade, and discuss this matter further."

Nod'ka took a deep breath before speaking. "I am sad that this did not happen on Jade."

"Is there any chance this guy might come back? Arkis I mean." Nabiki asked after Ryoga came close to passing out from the intensity of Nod'ka's gaze.

"I don't think he stayed around long enough to see where you live but there is a chance." She admitted. Arkis was one of the few humanoids stupid enough to try to make hunting dragons into a career. He was also one of the smaller amount who was smart enough to get away with it. "If he does, I would wager he would target either of you for an act of revenge." She glanced between Ranma and Nabiki.

"Oh my baby girl!" Soun cried dramatically and gathered his daughter up in a bone crushing hug. "You'll protect her from this horrible man won't you?" He turned to ask her.

"I'm not a body guard." She scoffed.

"She may stay with me on Jade." Nod'ka offered.

X x x x x x

Nabiki barely noticed Nod'ka's offer before she was nearly crushed by her father again at the idea that she might leave him. Struggling to get her octopus like father off her, she gave up the struggle in her human form, and changed into a Dragon. The change in shape allowed her to slip from his grasp and rush over to use Debra as a shield. As far as she was concerned, Debra was a safe figure. This had the side effect of putting her next to Agen, who smelled so good she had to fight not to drool all over the floor.

"Dad I can't just leave." She protested to cover up how her stomach was growling.

"If it's for your safety you can!" He shouted dramatically. "Although there is her education to think about." He added as an afterthought.

"Ra'ma will have a tutor, I'm sure they can take on a second student." Nod'ka answered.

"But I don't want to go." Nabiki whined as she saw the dots being connected by her father.

"My agency will be working on finding him." Debra turned to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "A month, maybe two at the most, and we should be able to track him down."

"If it's so easy why haven't you done it before?" She asked sarcastically.

"To be honest, Dragons can vanish for years on end, and it can be hard to notice when one of us is killed. Now, we know he's here on Earth somewhere, we can track all the passages to and from Jade that he might use, and I'll be using my agencies connections to make sure he gets brought to justice." Debra answered.

"But－." Sitting down, she let her wings drop lifelessly to her side. "I don't want to go."

X x x x x x

Author Notes

(1) - A presence mask spell disrupts aura trails within an 8 mile radius. Aura trails can almost be read like a book by a Dragon. So for Nabiki to be looking directly at it when it happened was like having all the colors around her suddenly switch positions randomly.


End file.
